A Long Way From Home
by LadyMoonSilver
Summary: I moved everything to the mid-nineties. Five-O is facing a new challenge: military women who survived a war, a serial killer, and a rapidly changing world. Warning: Descriptions of combat and assault. Some bad language, since this is the military. Some adult situations that may not be suitable for young readers so consider yourselves warned. Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The characters from the original series are not mine, I'm just borrowing them and moving them to a new decade. They're just older and maybe a little wiser and like the rest of us trying to cope with a rapidly changing world. I gave them a new challenge: military women who survived a war.

All the original characters exist only in my imagination. There is no 223rd Public Affairs Battalion at Ft. Shafter. The Navy ships mentioned do not exist. Most of the locations are courtsy Google maps. Some have been tweaked a bit to make the story flow.

Read and enjoy. I'm re-posting this for editing. I'm trying to break it down into chapters and hoping I get it right this time.

The original beginning of this was posted in 2005 under the name SilverSurfGirl. A lot of things have happened since then. This is writing as therapy. Reviews will be appreciated.

Thank You.

LMS

Preface

The body was lying face up on the beach rocks, arms extended. She couldn't have been more than twenty, and she wasn't going to get any older. The surf was starting to come in, causing her short dark hair to float around her face like a halo.

McGarrett shook his head as if to clear it. Surfers had found the body and called HPD. HPD had in turn called Five-O. Now the crime scene techs were combing the beach, looking for anything that could be used to bring in the killer.

"What have we got, Danno?" he asked.

"Not much. Surfers found her and called HPD. HPD called us in the second they got a good look at her. ME says he's ready to move the body. When he gets through, we'll know more."

"Same pattern as the other six?" McGarrett asked, hoping he wouldn't get the answer he knew was coming.

Williams ran his hands through his curls. "ME says death was probably caused by strangulation. She's got bruises on her throat that fit the pattern. Bite marks on both breasts look the same as the others, but until the ME's done we won't know if they're a match. Don't know about anything below the waist yet. Tide's coming in and washed away any visible traces of blood or other body fluids. Oh, and we found her clothes further up the beach past the waterline, still dry, neatly stacked and folded, a skirt, tee-shirt, and sandals, no underwear of any sort, also, no beach bag, purse, jewelry or ID of any kind, same as the others. But we may have caught a break on the ID."

"How's that?"

"Victim's description matches one on a missing person called in by the Army this morning. According to the report filed by her section sergeant, the girl didn't come back from sightseeing Saturday and is about the least likely person on the post to go AWOL. The name is Tami Lynn Wilson and she's from Provo, Utah. She's been here all of a month."

"Let's get her to the morgue before we start calling in the Army. Who knows, she could be another hooker".

"You think so?"

McGarrett knew damned well this girl wasn't a hooker. Nothing about her fit the type, yet here she was, lying naked and dead on a deserted stretch of beach known only to a few die hard surfers and beachcombers, and so far, it looked as if she had been killed by the same monster that had been using the Islands as his own private hunting grounds.

"No, I don't. I told the AG, DA, and HPD this was going to happen, but no one wanted to listen. All the creep was doing was killing hookers and for some stupid damned reason the powers that be refused to fund a task force for a serial killer who was stalking hookers. Maybe this time they'll listen." _And_ , he added to himself, _if they don't I'm going to raise hell until they do._

The morgue techs were loading the body onto a gurney. McGarrett and Williams halted them as they started the climb up the cliff to where the transport van was parked. McGarrett unzipped the body bag, exposing the girls face. Young, pretty, dark hair, face lightly tanned and unlined, no traces of makeup, no tacky residue from hair spray or mousse in her hair, no tattoos. She could have been any one of the thousands of young girls who visited the Islands every year, looking for who knows what. One thing was sure; she was a long way from home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

Monday afternoon and all was not well. Sergeant First Class Margaret Alden sat at her desk in the _Stars and Stripes_ newsroom, angry, frustrated, and doing her best to not to visualize how much she would enjoy running over First Sergeant John Hardin. _The only thing stopping me,_ she thought to herself, _is I'd probably damage my car, or at the very least, need to get it detailed._

Hardin was insisting she charge PFC Tami Lynn Wilson with being AWOL, when she knew damn well the kid wasn't. The girl hadn't shown back up at her barracks Saturday. Then Sunday afternoon her pastor had called. The girl had been a no show at the Sunday service. Tami Lynn was a rarity. A devout Mormon, she had attended church services on a regular basis since her arrival in the Islands. The girl was still missing at morning formation and, after talking to the roommates and seeing their concern, Alden had filed a missing persons report with both the HPD and the MP's. Instinct told her something wasn't right.

"Look, Hardin, I'm telling you for the last time, I don't think Wilson is AWOL. She's not the type to just take off."

"Fine, Alden, have it your way. I don't want to pull rank on you but if she's not back by tomorrow morning, I'm charging her with AWOL, and if the camera you let her borrow doesn't show back up, I'm charging her with theft of government property. And the next time you get a bright idea about filing a missing persons report with anyone, I'd appreciate it if you got my approval first. I am First Sergeant."

 _As if you didn't remind everyone on the planet at any given moment_ , she thought, but smiled and said. "Sorry about that, Top. I thought it was what you'd want, considering how you've always got the best interest of your troops at heart." _God is going to strike me dead for lying_.

Hardin collected his ever present coffee mug and stalked out of her office like a stork with hemorrhoids, apparently immune to sarcasm.

 _Bastard_ , she thought, _I hope your prostate swells to the size of a basketball._

Her resentment toward Hardin was interrupted when the phone on her desk rang.

" _Stars and Stripes,_ Sergeant First Class Alden speaking. How may I help you." she answered in a soft voice that still held traces of Southern drawl even after more than 18 years in the Army.

McGarrett's day had just gotten worse. He could never decide who annoyed him the most, journalists or Federal Agents. "This is Steve McGarrett with Five-O. Are you the Sergeant Alden who called in a missing persons report this morning on a PFC Tami Lynn Wilson?"

Maggie had only been in Hawaii for a short time but she knew Five-O by reputation. Something told her this was not going to be a pleasant phone call.

"That would be me. Please tell me you've found my soldier, and that she's okay."

"We're not sure yet," McGarrett said, trying to sound reassuring. "A couple of surfers found a body a few hours ago. The description on the missing persons report matches. There was no ID so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come down to the morgue and have a look at the body".

"Oh, God", Maggie half whispered. "What happened?"

"I'd prefer not to discuss that over the phone or until we have a positive ID. The body may not be that of your missing soldier".

"I sincerely hope it isn't. I need directions from Ft Shafter. I'm new to the area so make them simple."

McGarrett gave her directions. She assured him she'd be there in about an hour and hung up the phone. Then putting on her uniform jacket and grabbing her purse and beret, she told the receptionist she'd be back by four.

"What do I tell the First Sergeant if he asks where you are?" inquired the receptionist, a young specialist fourth class from Iowa. The friction between Hardin and Alden, or more precisely, Hardin and anyone who had a functioning brain, was well known.

"Tell him I'm going to retrieve some missing government property. That ought to shut him up for a while. If you need anything, call my cell phone. And whatever you do, don't give Hardin the number."

She fished sunglasses out of her purse and switched them for the bifocals she had been wearing. Another day in paradise...

* * *

McGarrett and Williams were waiting in Doc Bergman's office for the forensic pathologist to come in with the preliminary reports from the young women's body. McGarrett sat scowling, lost in thought. Williams was watching the fish swimming in Bergman's aquarium.

McGarrett didn't even bother to get up when Bergman came in. "Well, got any answers for me, Doc?" he asked.

Bergman was use to McGarrett's abruptness and didn't take offense. "So far, looks like cause of death was strangulation. Bruising around the throat and a crushed trachea from the external exam are what you would expect to find with manual strangulation. The bite marks on her breast and thighs are consistent with the other six bodies, but unlike the previous six, there is no sign of sexual activity of any kind. And, strange as it may seem in this day and age, the girl died a virgin."

"You're kidding, right?" asked Williams.

"Probably the last virgin over sixteen in the state," Bergman said, sadly.

"Wouldn't bites be considered sexual assault?" McGarrett asked, giving Williams a 'shut the hell up' look.

"Not in this case and not in the classical context. I'll give the FBI profiler another call to see if he has any more insight into the way this guy thinks."

"That's all we need, Feds," said Williams, in the same tone someone would use when referring to plagues of fleas and fire ants. "Any hope of recovering DNA evidence?"

"We're going to try, but I have a feeling the surf took care of most of that. We've got the bite marks. We'll cast them and see if they match the other six victims, although I'm going to hazard a guess that it's the same guy. We still won't know much else until after the autopsy. That's scheduled first thing in the morning. I heard you got someone coming down to ID the body."

"Possibly", said McGarrett. "Had a missing persons report filed by the Army this morning. The sergeant's coming down for a look."

"If she's military it will make our life easier. She'll have current dental records and prints on file."

McGarrett's cell phone rang.

He answered it curtly "McGarrett". He listened for a second. "Tell her I'll be down in a minute. Sergeant Alden is here. Is the body ready for viewing?"

Bergman nodded. "I'll have her covered to the shoulders since we're still using the bite marks as hold back evidence."

McGarrett nodded. "Excellent idea, especially when you consider the good sergeant works for the _Stars and Stripes_."

* * *

McGarrett and Williams stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby. They saw the sergeant standing by the front desk. They looked at the sergeant, and then they looked at each other. McGarrett raised one eyebrow, Williams shrugged and smiled. Non-coms hadn't looked like this when they were on active duty.

She was a small woman, not more than five foot one, standing very straight in the low heeled uniform pumps she was wearing, and she was curved in all the right places. Her hair had gone silver early, and was pulled back into a braid that was coiled at the back of her head. She wore wire rimmed glasses and the eyes behind the lenses were dark green, nearly matching the uniform she wore. The service stripes on her left sleeve indicated she'd been in at least 18 years. With the exception of the prematurely silver hair, she looked all of twenty-five.

McGarrett spoke first. "You must be Sergeant Alden."

"That would be me and you would be Mr. McGarrett." she said in the same southern accent he'd heard over the phone. She looked up at the tall detective. Mid 40's to early 50's she decided, in fairly decent shape, broad shoulders, trim waist, pale blue eyes, and lots of dark hair.

"Yes, and this is my associate, Dan Williams. If you will come with us we'll get this unpleasantness out of the way as quickly as possible". A southern drawl combined with green eyes dark enough to drown in. She had looked up at him with an even, intelligent gaze you very seldom saw in people addressing police officers for the first time. Something in the back of his mind was screaming that this small woman was one of a kind. He tried to ignore it and put his mind back on the business at hand.

She handed McGarrett a manila envelope. "I stopped by the post dental clinic on the way out and collected Private Wilson's dental records, in case you need them."

"Good thinking, Sergeant," said McGarrett, taking the envelope. "This will make things easier for the medical examiner, if indeed this is your missing soldier. This way please".

He motioned for her to follow them to the elevator. As she stepped in she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Sorry", she said. "I'm a little claustrophobic."

"It's a short ride", McGarrett said, "We're only going two floors."

It seemed like an eternity before the doors opened into an institutional green waiting area. Green linoleum floor, green walls, ugly uncomfortable green chairs. A table with a coffee urn and Styrofoam cups stood in one corner. A rack on the wall held brochures for grief counselors and funeral homes. This was not a happy room.

McGarrett slid a key card that opened a pair of institutional green metal doors on the left side of the room that opened into a tiled corridor. It was colder back here, and smelled of disinfectant. A middle aged man in a lab coat and surgical scrubs approached them. McGarrett introduced him as Dr. Bergman, the head of the pathology department. McGarrett handed Bergman the envelope with the dental records. Bergman nodded, and led them into another freezing room, this one painted gray; one wall was a bank of refrigerated drawers.

"Are you ready, Sergeant?" he asked. Maggie nodded. Bergman opened the door and slid out the drawer.

"Oh, god, no," she whispered.

"Is this your soldier?" McGarrett asked.

"It's her. What happened? Oh, god, I've got to call her parents!"

"For the record, could you state her name and address, please?"

"PFC Tami Lynn Wilson, United States Army, HHC, 223rd Public Affairs Battalion, Ft Shafter, Hawaii." Maggie said automatically. "This is awful. What happened?"

"Thank you," Bergman said as closed the drawer. "I'll get someone up here to do a comparison with the dental records before you leave, just for verification. I'm also going to need a copy of your ID for the records." Maggie took the ID out of her wallet and handed it to Bergman. "I'll have this back to you in a few minutes. Steve, could you find the Sergeant a cup of coffee while I do that?"

"I think I can handle that." McGarrett said. He took her arm. "Danno, stay with Doc, make sure everything gets entered into evidence. Sergeant Alden, if you'd come with me I have a few question for you and maybe a few answers for yours."

He led her to a room off the reception area; this one painted the same horrible green but furnished with soft comfortable chairs.

"How do you take your coffee?" he asked.

"I don't," she said, rather sharply.

McGarrett raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry," she said. "Guess you could say this isn't one of my better moments. I'm not a coffee person. I'll take a Diet Coke if you have one." _And a cigarette_ , she added to herself. _Why the hell did I ever stop smoking_?

McGarrett left, and came back in few minutes with an ice cold can of Diet Coke. She popped the top and took a long drink, feeling the carbonated liquid burn the back of her throat.

"Better now?" he asked. She nodded. "I need to know as much about Private Wilson as possible. Any habits, friends, boyfriends, anything you can think of, and we'll need a picture, if you have one. I don't like showing morgue photos when I'm trying to find answers."

Maggie took a deep breath. "She was 19 years old. She's been here just over a month. I don't know about a boyfriend, you'd have to ask her roommates about that. She's a photographer. She wanted to go sightseeing at the _Arizona_ this weekend. I gave her a camera and some film and told her to get a few shots for next week's Sunday supplement. That was about nine Saturday morning."

"What was she wearing?"

"Blue BYU tee shirt and a long skirt, mostly blue, sandals, blue fanny pack instead of a purse."

McGarrett nodded. She had just described the clothes found at the scene, with the exception of the fanny pack and camera. "What kind of camera?"

"An older Cannon. Good camera, kind of heavy. There isn't much you can do to destroy one of the things. We've got newer and lighter ones but she liked the old Cannon's."

"Was she wearing any jewelry, rings, watches, that sort of thing?"

Maggie thought for a minute. "She did have a watch, couldn't tell you what kind, and a birthstone ring. I remember the ring because it was a pink zirconium, the kind jewelers are trying to pass off as October's birthstone these days instead of opals. Her birthday was in October, same as mine, and I said she needed to get opals. She said her mother had told her opals were bad luck unless they were given to you by your true love and she'd have to wait on hers. Oh, and a gold chain with that Mormon angel on it, Moroni, I think it's called."

"Mormon angel?" McGarrett asked. The Army sergeant was wearing an opal and diamond birthstone ring on her right hand and a very nice platinum wedding set on her left, damn the bad luck.

"Yes, the one who told Joseph Smith where to find the Book of Mormon. Don't ask me for details, I'm a recovering Baptist. She was a very active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. She was in church every time the doors opened. When she didn't show up for services Sunday, the local bishop called me. I checked with her roommates only to find that she had never come in Saturday night. She was still a no show this morning and I filed a missing persons report with HPD and post MP's. I caught nine kinds of hell for it from the First Sergeant. He wanted to carry her as AWOL".

McGarrett was impressed. Most military types would have had the girl written up for AWOL and had done with it. "Why did you file the missing persons report?"

"You would have had to know the girl to understand. She was a true innocent, naive as all get out. She had this sense of duty that was unbelievable. Most kids today, they join for the GI Bill and the rest of the bennies. Not her. She thought it was her duty as an American. In a way it was kinda corny, but sweet. Hadn't the vaguest clue about what she'd gotten herself into when she enlisted. Everybody on staff, including her two nutcase roomies, went out of their way to make sure she didn't come to harm. A fat lot of good that did."

Maggie was crying now, her eyes shining like wet leaves. There was a small scar above her right eyebrow, making the brow arch slightly higher than the one on the left. A small upturned nose, full soft lips, and a square chin completed the picture. He handed her a tissue from the box on the table.

"Thanks," she said, sniffing a bit. "I hate to cry. It blows the whole tough woman in uniform image completely out of the water."

McGarret gave her a slight smile. "Not around here. Crying at the morgue is practically a requirement."

There was a soft knock on the door. Dan Williams entered, looking rather grim. "We checked the dental records. They're a match. I'm sorry, Sergeant, we just confirmed that she's your missing soldier." He handed Maggie a clipboard, her military ID clipped to the top of a form. "You need to sign here. This indicates that you have seen and identified the body." She signed the form, retrieving her ID when she was done. Danny separated the papers and gave her a copy of the form.

Maggie took a deep breath. McGarrett noticed that among other things, she had a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and assorted other ribbons that you don't get for keeping your boots spit shined. Her face changed and suddenly she was all business and all journalist. "Now would either of you gentleman care to tell me what happened. Was it an accident?"

McGarrett had known that question was coming, and he was ready for it. "I'm sorry to have to tell you she was murdered."

"What? No, that can't be! Who would do a thing like that? She's just a kid!"

"We don't know at this time but let me assure you that we will find them. All I can tell you for now is that she was strangled, probably in another location, and her body was left on the beach. Both her fanny pack and the camera are missing, but we have people out scouring the area where she was found. I'll need the serial number from the camera. We'll send a list around to all the pawn shops and put out word on the streets that anyone finding either the camera or the pack will benefit from Five-O's gratitude. We're just starting the investigation, and that's about all we have for now. There is an autopsy scheduled for tomorrow morning. We'll let you know when it's done and make arrangements for the release of the body. Since she's military, we're going to call in a pathologist from Trippler as an observer. The one thing we do know, however, was that she wasn't sexually assaulted."

"I suppose that will be some comfort to her parents. Is there anything else you need me for? I have to get back to post and start taking care of things."

"I'll walk you to your car. Is there a number where I can reach you?" It was Williams turn to raise an eyebrow. He knew Steve already had her contact number, or else the sergeant wouldn't be here. McGarrett ignored him.

She took a business card out of her jacket pocket. "Those are the numbers to the Stars and Stripes office. Do you have a pen?" McGarret gave her one and she wrote on the back of the card. "The top one is to the BEQ. The bottom one is my cell phone number. Quickest way to reach me is call my cell."

He took Maggie's arm and led her out of the building. He couldn't identify the perfume she was wearing but it was giving him ideas he shouldn't have about a married women.

"Is your husband stationed in the Islands?" he asked as they were walking out of the building to where a yellow Mustang convertible with the top up was parked by the curb.

"Unfortunately, no," she said. "He was killed during the Gulf War."

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said, not knowing what else to say.

She was rummaging through her purse, looking for her keys. She dug them out and tried to insert one into the door lock only to find that her hands were shaking so much all she was managing to do was scratch the paint around the lock.

McGarrett's large hand closed over her smaller one, steadying it. She looked up, green eyes meeting blue ones, trying to ignore the tingle that started where his hand touched hers and ran all the way down her spine. "Thank you" she said as she unlocked the door.

"I'll send a couple of people over to question her roommates. When would be a good time?"

"Around five, they should be off duty by then. I'll be there, too. We have to inventory her things...Uh, you can let go of my hand now".

Steve did, smiling a bit. Can't fault a guy for trying, besides, when he had touched her hand he'd felt a jolt of electricity that went all the way to his toes.

"I'll be in touch" he said, closing her door.

* * *

Maggie arrived back at the Stars and Stripes office around three-thirty. She dropped her things off at her desk and headed directly for the Commander's office.

She opened the door and saluted. "Sergeant Alden reporting for duty, Sir!" she said.

"At ease, Sergeant. And how many times do I have to tell you not to do that every time you walk through my door?" It was an old joke between them. Colonel George Dale was winding down his military career as a public affairs officer. He was enjoying his last assignment to the fullest, and with few exceptions, liked his staff. Maggie had worked for him before in Europe and he had been glad to see her when she had been reassigned to Hawaii.

"Sorry, sir", she said. "Unfortunately, this is official. It's about PFC Wilson. A couple of surfers found a body this morning. I just came back from the morgue. It was her. The medical examiner confirmed my ID with her dental records." She gave him the form from the coroner's office. "Here's the official confirmation of identity, or at least that's what's written on the damned form."

"Oh, hell, sit down already. This was the kid Hardin threw a fit over because you filed a missing persons report instead of charging her with AWOL?" Maggie nodded. "What happened? Was it an accident, did she drown?"

Maggie sat. "No, sir, she was strangled and her body dumped on the beach. The police are investigating. Not that they know much at this point."

"Crap. Kid had been here, what, a month. Nice girl. Dig out all her contact info, I'll call her parents and get the ball rolling on shipping her back to... where was she from anyway?"

"Provo, Utah. And you can do me a favor. Keep the First Sergeant as far away from this as possible. That idiot is bound to do or say something stupid and cause more trouble than he's worth. And for God's sake, don't let him talk to her parents."

"Sergeant Alden, that's going a bit too far. I know you don't get along with Hardin but he does outrank you and he is First Sergeant".

"As he so often reminds anyone who will listen. Yes, sir, I know it's bordering on insubordination, but that man just flat gets on my nerves. As soon as Private Wilson's roommates get off work this afternoon, the police will be sending a couple of investigators over to talk to them. Do you really want him in the area when that happens?"

"Point well taken. I'll see to it that he's busy somewhere across the post. Oh, and a word to the wise, please. First Sergeant Hardin says that the main topic of conversation between the women around here seems to be menstruation. He says it's all you women talk about when he's within earshot."

"It's the only way we can get rid of him, sir." Maggie said before she thought about it. "Oops, wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"You didn't. But spread the word to confine personal talk to the ladies room from now on."

"Yes, sir." she said meekly. "We get to hear all the gory details of his alleged combat exploits and he gets offended when women discuss a perfectly natural body function. Won't happen again, sir. I'll go get Private Wilson's contact info. As soon as her roomies show up we'll inventory her stuff and get it packed up. Damn, I hate doing this and I hope to God it's the last one I ever have to do."

"Remind me how much longer you have until retirement."

"Twenty-one months, sir. Another day like today and it won't get here fast enough."

* * *

Maggie went back to the BEQ to shower and change before she had to meet with Wilson's roommates and the investigators. The BEQ was an older three story building that had once housed WWII fighter pilots. It had been renovated and turned into senior enlisted quarters in the late sixties. The accommodations consisted of two room suites with a bathroom in between. The building was shared by both male and female non-com's, all of them years older than the kids living in the barracks across the street.

Maggie's suitemate was Susan 'Lu' Yablanski, a tall blonde from Indiana. She and Lu had been stationed together on and off for years. Lu had introduced Maggie to her late husband, and Maggie had in turn stood up with Lu at both of her weddings. The two of them were the quintessential Mutt and Jeff pairing, Lu standing six feet tall in her stocking feet and Maggie all of five foot one in boots. Lu was a few years older than Maggie, how many she refused to say. She'd been in 23 years, and, as she was fond on telling anyone who'd listen, she'd have long been retired if her daughter hadn't been accepted at Vassar, which was her way of saying to the rest of the world, hey I may just be an Army grunt, but damn, my kid is fucking brilliant.

Lu had already changed out of her uniform into a jeans and a Vassar sweatshirt. She stuck her head in the door as Maggie was pulling on a clean shirt, trying her best to hide a wince at the sight of the scars on her friends back and torso. They were probably the only two senior NCO's living at the BEQ who never locked the doors between their rooms. "I just heard about the kid. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. So far anyway. The CO's calling her parents. Rather him than me."

"Ain't that the truth? He called me in earlier, said to be over at her room at five. I think we should go over early and make sure her roomies are behaving before the cops get there."

"Why's that?"

"Cause her roomies are the Thompson Twins."

"Oh, crap. I'd forgotten about that. Looks like no dinner for us tonight," said Maggie as she pulled a lightweight pale grey crocheted lace sweater on over her tank top.

"Too bad we didn't have the Twins in Iraq. If we'd turned them loose on Baghdad old Saddam would have agreed to anything to get rid of 'em."

"Kinda reminds me of us when we were their age," Maggie said, unpinning her long hair and letting the braid fall down her back.

"Don't remind me. How did we ever survive?"

* * *

The Thompson Twins were not twins. Nor were they related. One was black, the other white, but a shared last name had paired them in boot camp and kept them together. There wasn't much the pair of them hadn't tried, both individually and collectively. In their wake they left a string of broken hearts, and occasional broken bones. Both were now E-4's, although for how long would be anyone's guess. Wilson had been assigned to their room in hopes of being a calming influence.

Maggie knocked softly. No answer. She could hear music and knew darn well the Twins were in there.

Lu stepped up to the door. "Let me at 'em", she said. She knocked hard enough to wake the dead. "Alright, kids! You got until I count to three to open this door and then I'm going to get the CQ!"

The music died and there were the sounds of frantic shuffling and a can of air freshener being emptied. The door opened. Smoke drifted out of the room. Maggie took a deep breath, caught the scent of CK1, Glade, and the cloying scent of marijuana. The Twins were entertaining.

"Ok, guys, out!" Maggie ordered, glaring at the two young men who where trying their best to hide behind each other. "Now! And be happy it was me that busted you instead of someone else. And that goes for the shit you're smoking too. Don't give me that look. I know what I'm smelling and I personally don't give a damn what you do on your off time but in about half an hour this place is going to crawling with MP's and police officers and I don't want to spend the next month babysitting your sorry butts while you're on extra duty. Got it? Good. Now take the weed and take a hike!"

The men, kids really, not more than 20 at the most, beat a hasty retreat out the door and down the stairs.

"We're sorry, Sarge," mumbled Ebony Thompson, who's real name was Grace and was white.

"Open a damned window and get this place aired out." Lu ordered. "Have you two lost it completely? That idiot First Sergeant would like nothing better than to send the pair of you to the stockade."

"Don't know what that cracker's got against us," said Ivory Thompson, the black half to the Twins, and who's mother had thought that Ivory was a good name for her twelfth and youngest child, or else she'd ran out of options. Ivory and Maggie were both from South Louisiana, and had bonded immediately.

"I could name a few thing," said Maggie, "but I don't have time. We've got homicide detectives coming to interview you. Please, anything you can think of, no matter how insignificant, let them know".

"Somebody really kill Tami?' asked Ebony.

Lu nodded. "That's what it looks like at this point. Killed her and dumped her by the water".

Both the older women were so preoccupied with their own thoughts that neither of them noticed the rare moment that was occurring. The Thompson Twins were speechless.

* * *

McGarrett and Williams, accompanied by a pair of MP's and an officer from the Provost Marshall's office, arrived promptly at five, followed by two men from the supply room carrying boxes. The men, working off a few extra duty hours, seemed more than relieved when they were told they could go.

Maggie was pleasantly surprised to see McGarrett. "I'd have thought you'd have sent another investigator," she said.

"Not this time" he said. She'd changed into a grey sweater over a pink tank top and a long pink and grey cotton print skirt that made her look even younger than when he'd seen her earlier. "Are these the roommates?"

"Yes" said Maggie. "Don't let them fool you, they've been advised to be on their best behavior. These are Specialist Grace Thompson and Specialist Ivory Thompson, otherwise known as the Thompson Twins, although you can clearly see that this is not the case. Twins, this is Commander McGarrett and Detective Williams from Hawaii Five-O. They are here to ask you some questions about the last time you saw Tami alive."

As it turned out, there wasn't much to tell. All three of the young women had gone to Mama Maliki's for the Friday night Luau. As usual, the Twins had gotten wasted on tequila and had started a fight with a couple of sailors (males) and were asked to leave. Since Tami was the only one sober and not combative she was elected designated driver and had driven Ivory's Hyundai Accent back to the barracks and gotten the other two girls to bed before the First Sergeant, who, according to the Twins, obviously had no life, busted them for being drunk and disorderly again. Both had awakened with hangovers and had declined Tami's offer to go sightseeing. That had been around eight o'clock Saturday morning.

"Then," Maggie continued, "Tami stopped by the office around nine to check out a camera and some film. She told me she was going to take the bus to the _Arizona_ Memorial. That was the last anyone saw her on post. Oh, before I forget, here's the serial numbers from the camera and lenses." She handed McGarret note card covered with typed info.

McGarrett nodded. "Thank you, we'll get this out first thing in the morning. I know this may sound like we're intruding at a time like this, and we don't have a warrant, but would you mind if we looked through her things? We need to find out as much about her as we can."

Maggie and Lu both agreed to the search. Then McGarrett stunned both the sergeants by asking the Twin's permission.

"You girls probably knew her better than anyone here. Do you mind? I'll owe you a big favor if you do?" The Twins nodded. For a cop, McGarrett seemed decent enough, and besides, having one of the Island's top cops owing them a favor could be useful one day.

"No problem, sir," said Ebony. She'd also seen the way his eyes had lit up when he saw Sgt Alden. If that look was any indication, Sgt Alden had an admirer, about time, to her way of thinking, besides he didn't look half bad for an old guy. "Only let us take the stuff out of the drawers and things. It won't seem right, having a bunch of strangers pawing through her stuff. If you see anything you need to take a closer look at, just let us know."

Lu hated to make the next request, but she did it anyway. "I'm going to need her Class A's. The whole thing, the skirt uniform, shirt, brass, complete set of underwear, and shoes, the pumps, please. We'll need it for sending her home."

Ebony Thompson nodded. "We'll take care of it, Sergeant Y."

The Twins started opening drawers and loading things into the boxes, calling off the items as they went, Maggie and Lu making notes on clipboards as they did. McGarrett, feeling more like a voyeur than he cared to admit, listened intently, hoping none of the women present would think he was a pervert if he had to ask any questions about underwear. He was relieved when he didn't have to.

"One six pack Haynes Her Way beige cotton granny panties", Ivory called out, "one pair missing".

"She must have hit the undies sale at the PX," Lu commented.

"Yeah," said Ebony. "A six pack of beige cotton granny panties and two beige cotton bras. At least she had on new underwear when she died."

Ivory tossed the package into the box. "I tried to get the silly heifer to buy some thongs instead of this old lady underwear. Wouldn't do it. Oh, fuck." She burst into tears and ran from the room.

McGarrett ran a hand through his hair. _Coffee_ , he thought, _need coffee_. "Sergeant Alden, we're about done here. I'll leave Detective Williams to finish up. Would you join me for a cup of coffee? Oh, wait, you don't do coffee, but I know a place that makes a pretty mean Chai tea."

Maggie looked at Lu, confused. Lu nodded. "Go on, I can finish up and maybe convince Detective Williams to buy me a drink."

"Why not?" said Maggie, somewhat hesitantly. She hadn't been on a date with a man since her husband had died over five years earlier, even one as simple as going out for a coffee, and there was something about that tall detective that was making her heart beat faster. "Lu, call me if you need anything."

"Get out of here, Margaret," Lu said, barely glancing up from her clipboard.

'Let's go," McGarrett said. "You'll love this place. It's got a great view of the ocean."

* * *

"So, where are we going?" she asked as they headed down the stairs. _He's really_ _tall_ , she thought, _and looks way too good in that suit. What the hell is the matter with me? And that accent. It's not native. I swear I'm hearing Brooklyn_ _in there somewhere._

"A little place called Maholo's. It's down the beach from here. It's a quiet place, family run. I think you'll like it."

"I've only been here a few months and I'm still trying to find my way around," she said as they were crossing the lobby of the building just as the first sergeant was coming through the front doors. She groaned inwardly. "Oh, crap, here comes trouble".

"Alden," Hardin called out. "Hold it right there!"

"What is it, Top?" she asked as he strode across the room, looking for all the world like a anorexic vulture.

He stopped about two feet in front of her. "Why the hell didn't you tell me the police were going to be here interviewing those two psychos? I should have been informed, either by you or Master Sergeant Alphabet! I'm senior to both of you and you damn well know it!"

"Listen, Top, the Old Man told me he had sent you across post on a very important mission and I wasn't to bother you. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with him in the morning and I'd appreciate it if you got quit referring to Master Sergeant Yablanski as "alphabet" and the Thompson's as 'those two psychos'".

"This isn't the end of this by a long shot," Hardin was practically shouting. "And who's the civilian? You know civilians aren't allowed in the barracks without being signed in. He signed in? You sign him in? Did someone else?"

McGarrett had had about enough. "I rather think I signed myself in," he said, taking out his credentials and shoving them in Hardin's face. "Steve McGarrett, Commander, Hawaii Five-O. Your people have been very co-operative. If Sgt Alden hadn't called in the missing persons report this morning we'd still be trying to identify that young woman's body. The two young ladies upstairs were most helpful, as well as the other sergeant. In fact she, one of my men, and the MP's are just finishing up now. After I've been briefed by Detective Williams I'll be happy to pass the information on to your commander, who I'm sure will pass it down through proper channels. Until then, we're done here. Now if you will excuse us". He took Maggie's arm and led her out the door before Hardin had time to recover.

"Sweet move, Commander," Maggie said as Steve hit the clicker on his key fob to unlock the doors of a black Mercury Marquis parked in front the building. He opened the passenger side door for her, then going around to the other side; he took the 'police' placard off the windshield and tossed it into the back seat.

"Is he always like that? And it's Steve." He said, getting in and starting the car.

"Only about 99% of the time. The rest of time he's just a total ass. You know I really could use a cup of tea after that, Steve. And I guess its Maggie."

"Coming right up, I guess its Maggie," he said, smiling.

* * *

It was a nice place, decorated in old Hawaiian style with bamboo, palm fronds, ti plants, and bougainvillea. There were about a dozen small square tables, a bar, and a line of booths along one wall. The back of the place opened onto a small deck with tables and tiki torches overlooking the ocean. A set of narrow steps went down to a pier that jutted out over the water.

"Can we get a table on the deck?" Maggie asked, starting to feel a lot better about her date.

Steve smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. Hey, Kimo," he called to the waiter, "can we get the kona special blend and a pot of chai tea on the lanai, please?"

"Sure ting, brudah, coming right up."

"And bring us a couple of your omelets to go with it." He turned to Maggie. "Kimo has this all day breakfast thing going. Perfect for when you miss dinner."

They chose a table closest to the wooden railing that ran the length of the balcony. A warm soft breeze was blowing in from off the ocean, making the torches flicker.

"So," he asked. "How'd you end up here in Paradise?"

Maggie gave him a crooked half smile. "I'm not sure. This is the first place the Army ever sent me that has decent weather. I'm not going to know what to do come this winter and I won't have to dig my car out of a snow bank to get to work. How about you?"

"One of the easy questions. I was stationed here while in the Navy and didn't want to leave."

"My youngest sister was in the Navy. We were in the Gulf at the same time. I got to meet some of the sailors on her ship during the war. Those Navy women were amazing. You were Navy too?"

"Still am, actually. Navy Reserve, that is. I kept expecting to get called up for active duty during the Gulf War, but never did. I think the governor may have had something to do with that or else the navy thought I was too old. Not that it made much difference. With the number of officers called up for active duty the entire force was pulling overtime."

"I'll bet. I was in Germany when it started, with the Stars and Stripes European bureau. We deployed with the first wave of troops only to find that CNN had beat us there by four days. To this day every time I see a CNN logo I have to fight the urge to chunk something heavy at the TV screen."

Kimo brought their order, along with a pot of real cream, sugar, and a small container of powdered vanilla. "Here you go, brudah," he said, pouring McGarrett a cup of very black coffee. "Straight up, just the way you like it. Miss _Wahine,_ that vanilla be 'da real ting, made from my mama's recipe, not like dat cheap crap dey use at dat place I ain't gonna name. Let me know when you ready for a refill."

Maggie poured a cup of tea and added a bit of the vanilla powder. The aroma rising from the cup was heavenly. She added a little cream, stirred, and took a sip. "Oh, my", she said, "This is divine. I don't suppose he sells the tea packaged to take home." The omelet was served with bacon, toast, and fresh pineapple. She took bite of the omelet. It was filled with ham and cheese and absolutely delicious.

"Nope, already tried with the coffee. If I had this stuff at the office I'd get twice as much work out of my staff. Sure you don't want to try some?" He dug into his omelet.

"No, thank you. I had a very bad experience with coffee when I was a little bitty just out of AIT private, responsible for doing more research than reporting and re-writes for an old sergeant who's spelling was worse than mine and thought 'fact check' and dictionaries were something that happened to other people. It was on a payday weekend, and a bunch of us were at the club doing our best to drink ourselves into oblivion. Well, the paper for Sunday gets printed on Saturday night, it's about 2230 and none of us are feeling any pain. CQ comes bursting into the club, demanding a staffer who could operate a typewriter, ASAP, and yours truly here was the only one he could find."

"Emergency re-write. First time I've heard of needing one of those in the middle of the night."

"If you'd known old sergeant Owens, you'd understand why. He was a major alkie and about three months shy of retirement. We were all covering for him so he could do his twenty and collect his pension, and that included a whole lot of emergency re-writes at odd hours. Next thing I know, the CQ tosses me over his shoulder and hauls me out of the club and to the barracks. Lu and another girl force fed me a pot of black coffee so strong it could have been used as paint stripper and then threw me into an ice cold shower. Instant sobriety. Thought I was going to die. To this day I have no idea how managed to get the re-write done before the paper went to press. Haven't touched coffee or Southern Comfort since, but that was back when I was young and stupid and just knew I was invincible. The only good thing about that incident was Lu and I have been buddies ever since."

"Sounds like you've had an interesting career," he observed.

"Probably not as interesting as yours." She drank her tea. "I've got a dumb question. What does Five-O mean? Is it like department 50 or something esoteric that everyday people can't guess?"

He laughed softly, "No mystery," he said. "And you're close. Hawaii is the fiftieth state, therefore Five-O. We're a special branch of state law enforcement and no one could come up with anything better to call us. I guess you could say the name stuck."

"And your special branch is in charge of finding out what happened to Tami. Is it because she was military?"

He hadn't expected that question, then again, he must not have been thinking straight or he wouldn't have forgotten that the petite green eyed woman sitting across from him was a reporter. "Five-O has a relationship with the military that goes back to when the Islands first became a state. One of those old status of forces agreements that was never rescinded."

Maggie nodded, "So what's next, with the investigation that is?"

"At this point it's more questions than answers. We start by retracing her steps after she left post and to see if we can pick up her trail. If she made it to the _Arizona_ memorial she may have signed the guest book. If she did, we'll know she made it that far. We'll check security camera footage; at both the transit station and the memorial, see can find anything. If we do, we'll know where to start looking. Forensics will check everything for traces of DNA, and we'll keep you posted if we find anything."

"I suppose it's asking a little too much to hope you already have a suspect in mind." She said, sighing. "I would love to be able to tell her parents the creep's already behind bars."

McGarret had had the same conversation more times than he cared to remember and he had never gotten use to it. "I wish I had better answers for you. It takes time to build a case. I want the lowlife off the street just as badly as you do and when we do catch him, and we will, I want a case so airtight the lawyers can't loophole their way out." He poured another cup of coffee.

Maggie shook her head, her braid falling over one shoulder. "It looks like we're in for the long haul. If there's anything I can do to help with, let me know. I'm not an investigative reporter, but I'm good at research. I have a horrible feeling Tami isn't the first woman this monster has killed."

He gave her a sharp look, wondering just how much she knew and how much was instinct. He knew she hadn't been in the Islands long enough to know about the previous six murders nor had there been much mention of them in the news. Dead hookers didn't sell papers. "At this point I'll take any help I can get".

They ate in silence for a while. The moon was just starting to rise, full and round, over the ocean. "Wow!" she said. "Take a look at that moonrise. First time I've seen the moon rising over the Pacific".

"If you'd like, we can walk down the end of the pier."

"Can we? That would be wonderful!" she said. She stood up, trying to hide a grimace of pain as the hardware holding her spine together reminded her it was still in there.

"You okay?" McGarret asked, taking her arm.

"I'm fine, overdid the PT this morning, is all," she said, lying her head off.

"Does that have anything to do with the Purple Heart you were wearing earlier today?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing serious. Just a reminder that I'm not quite as invincible as I once thought I was, or as young." she said with a slight sad smile and just for an instant, he caught a brief glimpse of what could only be called the thousand yard stare. It was a look that he'd seen often enough to know she wasn't being totally honest. No matter, he'd find out sooner or later. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they went down the steps. She'd forgotten how nice it was to lean against a warm male body. He smelled of sandalwood, good soap, and a faint hint of gun oil. _Of course_ , she thought, _he's a cop, he's armed_. She wanted to bury her face in his chest and inhale deep lungfuls. A wave of guilt washed over her. She pulled away from him a bit, feeling horribly disloyal to her late husband's memory.

If he noticed, he didn't show it. They walked to the end of the pier; the only sounds the crash of the surf below. She was so short she didn't even come up to his shoulder. He reached down and pushed a stray lock of silver hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. "The wind is unbraiding your hair."

She smiled at that. "It's got a mind of its own, especially near the water."

Moonlight gleamed off the darker silver highlights in her hair and reflected off the lenses of her glasses. _I just met her_ , he thought, _and I feel like I've known her_ _forever. All I want to do is wrap her in my arms and protect her._ There was something about her that you didn't see very often, something the world or the military hadn't managed to touch, and right along side of that, a deep sadness you could feel when you got close.

"How's the view?" he asked.

"Gorgeous," she said. "Full waning moon, see, there's a little slice gone from the bottom right? It's the perfect combination of ocean breezes and moonlight on water. I'll bet it was spectacular a couple of days ago when it came full." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, consigning the view to memory. "It's beautiful. Thank you for bringing me here." She half turned to face him. It seemed only natural when he placed both hands on her hips, feeling their soft curve beneath her skirt.

"You are most welcome," he said, resisting the urge to draw her closer. He could have stood there with her for hours, watching her watch the moon, listening to the wind and the water, looking into those big green eyes. Instead he sighed and asked if she was ready to go back to post.

"I think so. It's been a long day and tomorrow starts way too early." She didn't want to admit, even to herself, how much she liked the feel of his hands on her body. He had big hands, and she could feel their warmth even through the layers of her clothing. _Oh, my gods,_ her brain was screaming at her, _what is wrong with me?_

He nodded. "I know the feeling. Maybe someday I'll get to show you sunrise over the Pacific," he said, smiling down at her. He took her hand as they walked back up the steps, happy that she didn't seem to mind. She collected her bag from the table as he paid the tab.

Back in the car he switched on a jazz station. They drove back to the post in a very comfortable silence, neither of them feeling it necessary to speak. At the BEQ he opened her door and walked with her to the entrance, not really wanting to say good night.

"Again, thank you, for everything," she said.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he said. He watched as she disappeared into the building and up the stairs, then turning, he got back in the car and drove to his office.

* * *

 _Computers_ , he thought as he switched on the one on his desk, _certainly made_ _things faster, but they would never compete with real police work_. Real police work involved legwork and dead ends and more questions than answers until you found what you were looking for, as well as walking and talking and observing the people you were talking to, cataloging speech patterns and movement and manner, and sometimes just sheer dumb luck, until you had enough evidence to bring out the handcuffs and haul them off to booking. That's why in the bottom drawer of his desk were six thick file folders from the previous homicides. He took them out, spreading them across his desk, wondering what it was they'd missed.

Over the past three years, six women, ages 22 to 36, had died at the hands of the same person. The FBI profiler had given them a white male age 30 to 40, apparently one who had it in for prostitutes, possibly because of some odd religious compulsion, as all the women had been laid out as if crucified. The killer also took trophies, usually jewelry or underwear and always left his victims clothes neatly folded at least twenty feet from the bodies. So far the suspect had been careful enough to dump the bodies where the ocean would take care of any traces of DNA. It was the penchant for dumping bodies by the water that had Five-O worried. There were places in Hawaii where the waves came in like runaway trains, taking anything left on the beach with them as they retreated. Steve considered it as six bodies found and no telling how many washed out to sea.

Six bodies, no, make that seven. He got an empty folder and wrote 'PFC Tami Wilson" on the front. Then using his password and called up the HPD preliminary reports. He wrote the case number under her name then hit the 'print all documents' button. The printer whirred, and started spitting out the first case documents. He opened the first folder and started reading, once more going over the details, looking for the one thing that would lead him to the killer.

There was a knock on the door, and Williams entered. "I had a feeling you'd be here. How'd it go with the little sergeant?"

"Little sergeant? I suppose she is. She's a very interesting lady. Did that tall drink of water induce you to buy her a drink?" he asked.

"Yes. Several. We went to the NCO club. I suspect that woman could drink you, me, and Kono under the table. She scared me."

Steve raised an eyebrow; Danny ignored it and went on. "That is one tight bunch of females. They really have each other's backs. This one idiot came storming into the room, shouting about being kept out of loop, threatening everyone and everything. She shut him down fast. Said he was being disrespectful to the memory of that poor child and would he please let them get on with their job. The MP's finally threatened to haul him out bodily if he didn't comply. I suspect that tomorrow morning all four of those women are going to be in the CO's office".

"I think I met the same idiot earlier. That would be the First Sergeant. He seems to have a problem with women. Any possibility he could be a suspect?"

"Believe me that thought did cross my mind. I asked Sgt Yablanski about him; he hasn't been here long enough to be a suspect in the first four and he's got an alibi for when the girl went missing. General consensus is he's a total jerk who enjoys making everyone's life miserable."

"I knew it couldn't be that easy. Can't win 'em all." He took the papers off the printer and added them to the folder.

"Not this time anyway." Danny dropped the evidence envelope he'd been holding onto Steve's desk. "I've got the girl's address book, not that I think it's going to be much help, and a recent picture. According to the roommates it was taken when she was home on leave before she shipped out here."

Steve studied the picture. In it the girl looked younger than 19, pretty in a clean, well scrubbed sort of way. Around her neck was a chain with a small gold angel hanging from it. "The Angel Moroni," Steve muttered.

"What was that?" asked Danny.

"Sorry," he said. "This case is getting to me already. It's something Maggie mentioned earlier. The girl was wearing this pendant when she was killed. Add that to the list of stuff for pawnbrokers and fences, will you?"

"Maggie?" asked Williams.

Danny could have sworn Steve was blushing. "Sgt Alden".

"Ah, the little sergeant, and the description certainly fits. I didn't know the army took 'em that short. The first sergeant made the mistake of calling her 'Short Round' in Sgt Yablanski's earshot." He winced at the memory. Sgt Yablanski had used some rather colorful phrasing. "Those two have been friends for years. I suspect when both those women put their minds to anything, not much is going to stop them."

"Did you find anything else out about the two sergeants?"

Danny had a feeling that Steve was on a fishing expedition. "Just that Master Sergeant Yablanski is a photojournalist with more years in than she is willing to admit, has a daughter at Vassar, and that the Wilson girl worked directly for her but was on loan out to Sgt Alden for training. Hawaii is Sgt Alden's last tour of duty. She retires in less than two years, and, also according to Sgt Yablanski, Sgt Alden has been way too quiet since she got back from the Gulf War."

"I did notice that Sgt Alden had a chestful of interesting combat ribbons."

"Here I was thinking you were just looking at her interesting chest."

Steve gave him a warning look. "I have a feeling that if those two women get the slightest clue that girl is victim number seven they'll have it all over the front page of every military newspaper in the Pacific."

"You're right there. I got the impression they were very protective of their female troops, including that pair called the Twins."

"What's your take on those two? They're the closest thing we've got to witnesses."

"They seem reliable enough. They're layout designers and Sgt Yablanski says they're good at their job. They're also good at 'getting into more trouble than the merry pranksters on speed' and that's her quote, not mine."

"Well, you're only young once." He stretched and looked at this watch. "It's almost midnight. I'm calling it a day."

"Doc called. Autopsy's at eight. I'll meet you at the morgue."

"Not the best way to start off a morning. Let's get out of here."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two

Tuesday morning's PT run had been cancelled. The CO made a brief announcement about the death of PFC Wilson. He told the assembled soldiers that grief councilors would be available at 1300. The time and date for a memorial service would be made as soon as arrangements were complete. He then called for a moment of silence before dismissing them for breakfast, which was why Maggie, Lu, and the Thompson's were eating when the CQ runner showed up.

"Sorry to bother you," he said. "The CO and the First Sergeant want all four of you in the CO's office ASAP."

Ivory Thompson fist pumped the air, "Woo-hoo! I won! Pay up, y'all!"

Maggie, Lu, and Ebony all took out five dollar bills and dropped them on the table in front of Ivory. There had been a small bet as to when they'd be called to the CO's office, and Ivory had dibs on during breakfast.

"We're finishing breakfast first, kiddo," Maggie informed the runner. "I'm hungry and if Sgt Y doesn't get her morning caffeine fix, she gets mean."

Lu sipped her coffee as Maggie and the Twins finished their breakfast. Ebony, in the interest of making her money back, suggested a double or nothing bet as to the subject of the summons.

"No way," said Lu. "I can tell you exactly how it's going to go down. The word 'insubordination' will be heard. Rank will be brought up. 'Disrespect' will be mentioned. Non-judicial punishment will be suggested, although in the case of Sgt Alden and me the phrase 'court martial' will be bantered about. You two will keep quiet and not argue with anyone. As far as I know you've done nothing wrong, so let's keep it that way."

"You are taking all the fun out of life," replied Ivory.

"No," said Maggie, "We're trying to save you a load of trouble."

"Ohhhhh, speaking of which," Ebony interjected, "how'd it go with the tall dude in the suit? For an old guy he's smokin' hot."

Maggie nearly choked on her tea. "Now that's really getting disrespectful, and besides, he's not that old," she said, blushing, the memory of his hands on her hips still very fresh in her mind. "But to keep y'all from a bunch of wild speculation, I had a very nice time. He was a perfect gentleman, and no, I'm not going out with him again. Now let's go before the first sergeant explodes."

* * *

Maggie retreated to her office, closing the door behind her. The meeting with the CO had gone as expected. Hardin had made his usual noise about disrespect insubordination. The Twins had been dismissed with an offer of sympathy and an invitation to talk to the Colonel if and when they felt the need. She and Lu were given a mild lecture and told to get back to work, leaving the CO to deal with the First Sergeant. Hardin had to be the nosiest son of bitch on post and was always butting in where he had no business or authority. Maggie considered the whole incident a waste of time and energy. Sometime today she was going to have to write an obituary for PFC Wilson and that was one job she was not looking forward to. She switched on her computer to surf the news sites before the morning editorial meeting. She was about halfway through the AP newswire when her phone rang.

"Good morning, Maggie," Steve said. "I thought I'd call and see how things were going."

"I'll have to say they've been better," she said, her heart fluttering a bit. She really hadn't expected him to call, or at least not first thing in the morning. "I don't suppose you have any good news for me?"

"Not yet. I'm going to need to have the Twins come in to make a formal statement within the next couple of days, though. I was wondering if you're free for lunch. I'll have the preliminary reports ready for your commander by then, and we can get something to eat afterwards. That is if you don't have other plans."

"I'd like that very much," she said, forgetting her earlier avowal that she wasn't planning on seeing him again. As much as she hated to admit it, Ebony was right; the man was smokin' hot and starting to stir up some extremely dormant feelings.

"Good, I'll see you around 1130. You can introduce me to your CO."

"I'll even help you avoid the first sergeant." She said, laughing as he ended the call.

That was why, at 1115, Lu found Maggie in the ladies room, refreshing her makeup and repining her hair.

"What the heck are you doing?" Lu asked.

"Trying to put on mascara," said Maggie. "What does it look like?"

"You never re-do your makeup at work. Oh, wait a minute; does this have anything to do with a certain tall police detective?"

"No," she said, blushing, "Well, yes, Steve asked me out for lunch, is all."

"So it's 'Steve' now?" Lu was grinning. "And here I was thinking that you weren't going to see him again. About time you decided to quit being such a nun. Word of advice, though, you may want to take off the wedding rings."

Maggie looked down at her left hand as if seeing it for the first time. She'd been wearing those rings for so long it was as if they were a part of her hand.

Lu laid a gentle hand on her friends arm. "It's been over five years now. He's not coming back and you know he'd want you to get on with your life. It's time, hon."

Maggie nodded. She took off the rings. There was a pale band around her ring finger where the rings had been for so long. She transferred the opal and diamond birthstone ring from her right hand to her left, just for the feel of it. She dug her wallet out of her bag, and stashed the rings in the zippered coin pocket.

"I still miss him, you know," she said quietly.

"No one says you have to quit. It's just time to move on. You like this guy?"

"Yeah, I do. I did a lexus/nexus search on him and Five-O earlier today. He was described as incorruptible. He's like Wyatt Earp, Elliot Ness, and Sam Vimes all rolled into one. Plus you can have an actual conversation with him that doesn't include anything being blown up, firearms, or how much you can drink, smoke, or have sex before you pass out. Oh, damn, does this mean I'm getting old?"

"No, just growing up, and not too fast either, since one of the men you just mentioned is a fictional character." Lu sighed, wondering exactly when it was that had happened.

"How dare you say that to me after all we've been though?" said Maggie, her southern drawl thickening as she spoke.

"When's your guy getting here?

"Around 1130. He's got a copy of the police reports ready for the Old Man. I suppose we're going to have to give copies to Hardin, too. I'm hoping we can get out of here before he notices I've got company."

"You wish! I'll bet that nosey old buzzard has your office staked out, just in case you take it on yourself to show a little independent thinking." Lu ran her fingers through her hair and a makeup sponge across her nose. "You just can't improve on perfection. Let's go find that handsome devil".

As it happened, McGarrett was talking to the receptionist as Maggie and Lu were returning to work. "Good afternoon, Sergeants," he said, wondering once again why he couldn't get that green eyed woman off his mind. "I've got the reports ready for your CO."

"He's in his office," said Lu. "I think I'll let Sgt Alden take care of that, I've got to go run down the Twins and give them this afternoons work assignment. Later, kids." She winked at Maggie as she left the office.

"This way, please," she said, looking up at Steve. Today he was wearing a charcoal grey suit, white shirt, and a pearl grey silk tie, his eyes reflecting the grey of the suit and turning them a smoldering stormy blue. _Smokin' hot_ , Maggie thought, _I am so going to kill Ebony for that charming mental picture._

Maggie knocked on the CO's door. "You busy, sir?" she asked, sticking her head in the door. "Commander McGarrett from Five-O is here."

"Well, don't just stand there, come on in."

Maggie did the introductions. The two men shook hands, sizing each other up across the Colonel's desk. "Have a seat," he said. "I understand you have some more information about our soldier."

"Yes, sir," said McGarrett. "It's not a whole lot but it's what we've got so far. Autopsy confirmed she was strangled. Unfortunately, the surf washed away any DNA or trace evidence from her body. We have managed to retrace her steps from the transit center to the _Arizona_ memorial. I've got a technician going through the security tapes from there frame by frame, only it's going to take a while. As soon as I know anything, so will you."

"Thank you, Commander. If there is anything we can do to help, let me know."

"We will, sir. The ME's done." Steve handed him a manila envelope containing a much edited coroner's report. "Here's a copy of everything we have so far, as well as the instructions for releasing her body back to the army. If you have any problems or questions, please call my office." He handed the colonel a business card with a list of contact numbers for Five-O.

Maggie stood up remembering the Colonel's earlier edict to go find something to do that didn't involve bothering him. "If there's nothing else, sir, we'll be on our way. Sorry to have bothered you."

"I'll let it go, this time," he said. "Nice to meet you, Commander, I wish it was under more pleasant circumstances."

"Same here, sir," The men shook hands once again and Maggie saluted, linking her arm through Steve's as they left.

Colonel Dale watched them go. Good, he thought, about time.

* * *

"Steve," Maggie said as they were pulling into the parking lot, "This is the senior officer's club. We're not going to get in."

"I don't think we'll have a problem," he said. He opened her door, and taking her arm, led her inside.

He showed his credentials to the maitre de. "This way, sir," he said, leading them to a table near the window.

"Okay," she said. "I'll bite. How'd you pull this one off? I didn't think a status of forces agreement worked at the O-club."

"It doesn't. My Naval Reserve rank is commander, that's the same as a lieutenant colonel for you ground pounders."

"You didn't tell me you were a Navy officer! You realize this is probably considered unlawful fraternization. I swear I knew you were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you."

"Funny thing," he said. "I had the exact same feeling about you."

She didn't know what to say to that. She hid behind the menu, finally deciding on the chef's salad with iced tea.

"Your hair is the most remarkable shade of silver I've ever seen," he said.

"Thank you. That's so sweet. Believe it or not I use to be redhead."

"You must have started going grey very young."

"It wasn't like that." The waiter brought their food. Maggie took a deep breath, trying to decide how much of the story she was willing to tell and settled for the very abbreviated version. "During the war the hummer I was riding in took a hit from a mortar round. About all I remember is waking up on a medevac plane to Germany. Anyway, among other things, I had one heck of a concussion and there was speculation that I would need surgery to relieve the pressure on my brain. And, yes, contrary to what the first sergeant says, I do have one. The medics decided as a precautionary measure, and to save time should surgery become necessary, to shave my head. I didn't need the surgery after all, but I still got the haircut. Only when my hair started growing back out, it came in silver. The doctors couldn't tell me if it was from the head trauma or all the drugs they had me on. My hair hasn't been cut since, I refuse to dye it, and that's the reason Lu says I'm certifiable."

"I knew there was a story in there somewhere," he said. "When do I get to hear the rest?"

"When I feel like telling it," she said.

"I shall look forward to that." She had that unfocused far away look in those dark green eyes again. She wore a 7th Army Patch on the right shoulder of her uniform and a combat stripe on the cuff. That, combined with the ribbons on her chest indicated she'd been in combat. He knew she would tell him the rest of the story, just not today.

His cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was Dan Williams. He was going to have to talk to that boy about his timing skills. "What?" he said.

"We've got another one." Williams said.

"Another one? Where?"

"Mama Maliki's. This one's a little different, but the pattern still fits. You need to get down here."

"Be there in twenty," he said, hanging up. "Maggie, I'm sorry, something's come up."

"Duty calls," she said, half smiling.

There was a black ring around the dark green irises of her eyes. _She hasn't a clue_ _what those eyes are doing to me_ , he thought. "Yes," he said, "and at the most inopportune times."

He seemed preoccupied as he drove back to the Stars and Stripes building. Before she could get out of the car, he reached over the console and took her hand, noticing that she was no longer wearing her wedding ring. "I'm sorry. I promise I will make this up to you. Soon. I'll call you tonight." He leaned over and kissed her very lightly on the lips.

Maggie, confused, got out of the car and watched as he drove away. Two things were bothering her. One was he'd kissed her, which was very nice, and also very confusing. The other was what she'd overheard when he answered the phone.

"Another one? Where?"

Another what? And where? Somewhere that was fairly close to Ft Shafter, since he said he'd be there in twenty minutes and that including the time spent dropping her off. What Lu always referred to as her spidey senses were tingling. She went back to her office, fired up her computer, and started hunting.

* * *

Mama Maliki's was down the hill from Ft Shafter. It fronted the beach and had been a landmark for ages. Mama put on nightly luau for tourists and the military, with lots of food and booze and traditional dancing. During the day, there were lessons for surfing and outrigger canoeing. The area around the canoes had been cordoned off with police tape. Danny met him on the beach.

"Another hooker?" Steve asked.

"Looks like it. Asian female, age undetermined, one of the paddlers found her body under an outrigger. He thought the smell was from a fish net that hadn't been properly cleaned. That's him over there with the EMT's. He is not having a good day."

"Any idea how long she's been there?"

"ME says a couple of days at the very least, time of death anywhere from Friday to Sunday. He'll know more when they get her back to the morgue." Danny thought a minute, "No jewelry, no ID, possible strangulation, nude, same bite marks, only this time he didn't get a chance to dump the clothes. They were underneath the body. I'm hoping the lab will be able to collect some sort of DNA or trace evidence off them. It's our guy, all right. I think he was interrupted and he got pissed because he didn't get his jollies and then he went out hunting again and found that girl from the army and did to her what he wanted to do to this woman. That's what I think. I could be wrong. We'll know more once we get a timeline established."

"Shut this place down," Steve ordered. "I want every inch of it searched. Run background checks on everyone who's worked here in the past five years. PFC Wilson and the Thompson Twins were here Friday night. Re-interview those two; see if they remember anything else. And put a tail on them. I want two plainclothes on those girls 24/7 in case the creep tries to go after them. Coordinate with the MP's and the Provost Marshall's office. Put our men in army uniforms if you have to."

"You got it. You think they saw something they shouldn't have?"

"I don't know. According to the Twins, they were drinking heavily last Friday. Could be they didn't see a thing but maybe our doer thinks they did. I suspect those two make quite an impression wherever they go."

"I don't envy you your job right now, that's for sure."

"Why's that?"

"Because sooner or later you're going to have to explain to a certain silver haired army sergeant who just happens to write for the biggest military newspaper in the Pacific why you've been holding back on a lot of information and why you just put a couple of her female soldiers under HPD surveillance."

"There is that," he said. "It's time to go yell at the governor. Five-O is about to blow about three years worth of the overtime budget."

* * *

 _Sometimes being the head of Five-O had its advantages_ ; Steve thought as he made his way to the governor's office, _the Big Man has to see me when I call_. The receptionist, who had learned early on when to spot trouble, ushered him into the office and left as quickly as possible.

"Steve, I know that look." The governor said. "It's the same one you have every time you're about to tell me you're going to need more funding."

"Is it that apparent? I'm sorry. I've been looking at too many corpses lately. There is a creep out there killing women and I want him stopped before he kills another one." _Keep calm_ ; he told himself, _politics is not your strong point._

"Is it the same one you've been going on about for the last year or so? The one you say is targeting hookers? As awful as this may sound, those women know the risks they take when they choose to work the streets. Most people are of the opinion that the money would be better spent getting the hookers off the street than trying to catch a killer who may not even still be in the Islands."

"He's still here." McGarrett unceremoniously tossed a folder on the desk. "Open that, will you? He hit twice this weekend. One was a hooker. The other was a 19 year old Army private from Utah. I told you this would happen." He slammed his fist down on the desk for emphasis. "I told you a year ago that if someone could do this to women he hired for a quickie in a dark alley, then he would do it to your daughter or sister given a chance. This weekend he got his chance. That girl was two years younger than your youngest daughter. She was the same age as my niece. Her parents are going to want answers and I know damn well the Army does. So what do we tell them? That we waited until the creep killed someone with a proper lifestyle before we started hunting the killer? You bet your ass I'm about to blow a chunk of Five-O's budget and I'd really appreciate it if could see your way clearly to appropriating some more funding, because admit it or not, we've got a serial killer on our hands and he's only going to kill more women until he's caught."

The governor was staring at the picture of PFC Wilson from the file. It was an 8 x 10 enlargement of the photo Danny had taken from her room. In it Wilson could easily have been mistaken for sixteen. Dead hookers were one thing, nineteen year old Army privates another entirely. He shook his head sadly. She could have been his daughter; then again, the other murdered women were also someone's daughters. "You win," he said. "You get the money. Don't spend it all in one place; I'm going to have to pull this out of the states discretionary budget. Let's just hope like hell we don't have a hurricane this year."

"Thank you, Governor. We'll get this thing wrapped up as soon as possible."

"Don't go spending any more than you have to until my office calls yours. I'll put in an emergency request and with luck, you'll have the funds by morning. Catch this bastard quick, will you?"

"We'll do our best, sir," he said, fighting an urge to fist pump the air as he left the office, feeling a more optimistic than he had in months.

* * *

Maggie stepped out of the shower, feeling better than when she'd stepped in. She'd spent several hours after dinner back at her office searching the online archives of every paper in the island, hampered by the fact that she really didn't know what she was looking for until she stumbled across a very short article entitled "Who's Killing Honolulu's Streetwalkers?" Over the last three years six women had been killed, all of them prostitutes. Was that what Steve had meant when he'd said 'another one?' There had been a very brief quote from McGarrett, stating that the department was doing what they could, however, budget constraints were making their job extremely difficult and suggested that an infusion of funding from the governors office would be appreciated.

 _Budgets,_ she thought. _Everybody's got one. Unless someone wanted to start a war, then suddenly there was money for everything_. Dead streetwalkers didn't figure into anyone's budget. After all, they were just women, and not very important ones at that. They were the disposable women whose deaths one southern California police department referred to as "no humans involved homicides."

It had been a strange afternoon, even by military standards. Five-O had called the CO requesting, no request was too mild of a term for it, demanding the Twins be brought to their offices downtown for a formal statement. Maggie had been relieved when Lu had volunteered for that duty. She liked the Twins well enough, she just didn't feel up to even a short road trip with them. Then ten minutes before quitting time two new troops were dropped on her doorstep. Both were male, lateral transfers from units she'd never heard of and who looked way to old to only be E-4's. She'd settled them into a vacant room down the hall from the Thompson's and told them someone would deal with the rest of their paperwork in the morning. She'd also noticed more MP cars in the area than usual and wondered if HPD and Five-O had anything to do with that, or if possibly the MP's were finally doing something about the rash of wheel cover thefts and car break ins from the barracks parking lot.

She and Lu had gone to the mess hall for dinner. Lu was being unusually quiet. When Maggie asked what was wrong, Lu told her about her adventures with the Twins. She'd driven them down to Five-O headquarters at Iolani Palace, expecting to be there only a short while. It hadn't worked out that way.

"It was strange. There were two cops, Dan Williams of the gorgeous blue eyes and a Chinese cop with an Irish name. They took the Twins into separate rooms and questioned them for nearly two hours. I asked what they had wanted, and the Twins said that they went over their statements line by line, trying to see if they had left out anything important."

"Did they?" Maggie asked.

Lu grinned. "Only the part where Ebony upchunked into one of the canoes. I think they were trying to keep that little incident under wraps."

"Tequila will do a number on you," Maggie said, wishing that observation wasn't from personal experience.

"You got that right. Hey, how'd your lunch date go?"

"Called because of duty. His, not mine. We're halfway through lunch and he gets a phone call. Strange call. All he said was "Another one? Where?" and then said he'd be there in twenty minutes. I've been wracking my brain all day trying to figure out where twenty minutes from here is."

"You're right, that does sound strange. I'll check the news to see if there's anything happening. Are you going back to the 'Q'?"

"Nah, I'm heading back to my office for some quality time at the computer. It's so much easier to get work done when there's no one there."

That had been hours ago. Now she got out of the shower, dried off, rubbed on body lotion, and got into a pair of soft cotton pajamas. She brushed her teeth, considered taking one of the pain killers the docs kept insisting she take, decided against it, and climbed into bed with a book, hoping to maybe fall asleep before two in the morning and maybe get through the night without the bad dreams. She was just starting to drift off to sleep when her cell phone rang. Even though she didn't recognize the number on the caller ID, she knew who was calling.

"Hello, pretty lady." Steve said when she answered.

"You must have the wrong number," she said. "It's been ages since anyone referred to me as anything other than sarge, hey you, or my all time favorite, Short Round."

"Don't think so. Pretty woman, lots of silver hair, looks way too good in a uniform, and has this sweet Southern drawl that you don't hear very much around the Islands." He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Somehow the sound of her soft drawling voice was as soothing as listening to the surf and he could feel the tension of the day slowly fading away.

"Flattery will get you just about anywhere, Big Guy," she said.

"I called to apologize. I'm sorry I had to leave so abruptly this afternoon."

"No need to, I understand," she said. "Duty calls when it feels like it and sometimes I really wish it'd lose my number. Did you run down the miscreant and bring him to justice, or is the chase still on?"

"Unfortunately, the chase is still on. That's not why I called. I was wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner tomorrow night."

"I'll have to take a rain check on that one." She replied. "I have duty tomorrow night. I get to babysit a barracks full of twenty something's with raging hormones and more energy than you can imagine. I won't be off duty until eight the next morning."

"I remember those days, back when I was on active duty instead of reserves. That was back in the dark ages before the ships went co-ed. Things have certainly changed since then."

"That's the truth," she said, sighing. "Sometimes I wish it would go back to the old ways. I've got less than two years left and quite frankly, I've about had enough of the military. The kids keep getting younger and I'm getting tired of having to pack up their stuff and write their obituaries." She paused for a moment. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound so morbid. I don't like it when my kids get killed, and that's how I think of them, as kids. They're too young to buy a drink but old enough to carry a rifle. Their parents send them to us young and healthy and we send them back in boxes." Even though she was less than three years shy of her fortieth birthday, she suddenly felt very old.

"I didn't mean to upset you," he said. From the way her voice was catching it was apparent she was very close to tears. If he pushed it, he could be at Fort Shafter in half an hour. And he really did want to see her. "Feel like some company tonight?" he asked, hopefully.

 _That would be wonderful_ , she thought. It would be total bliss to melt into his arms and forget the rest of the world for a few hours. It had been a long time since anyone had held her and there was something about that long, tall police detective that had kicked her libido into overdrive. That was what she wanted; only that idea represented more complications than she thought she was ready for. Instead she said: "I'm sorry, I'm not fit for human companionship tonight. I just want to crawl under the covers and hide from the rest of the world until I feel better."

"I hope you feel better soon." He said, a little relieved and a lot disappointed. "You get some rest. I'll drop by to see you tomorrow night."

"I'll be easy to spot," she said. "I'll be the one who's either tearing her hair out or bashing some poor kid over the head with a stick for getting on my nerves."

"Let's hope not," he said, smiling at the idea of Maggie bashing anyone over the head with a stick, possibly while standing on a chair. "Good night, pleasant dreams," he said as he ended the call.

Maggie lay there a while, staring at her phone. She saved the number to memory, turned out the lights, and snuggled under the covers. Pleasant dreams, he'd said. She had a feeling that tonight he would invade her dreams, that is, if she could get to sleep.

She was right.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Three

Early the next morning the governor's office had called announcing that the funds for a task force to track down the killer had been released. McGarrett had breathed a sigh of relief and started phoning people. People came and went. Corkboards and whiteboards appeared. Things were copied and handed out. Crime scene photos were pinned up and evidence was being reviewed. _Finally_ , he thought, _we're getting somewhere. Now all I have to do is figure out where._

"So," he said, "we have eight homicides, eight dead women, seven of them hookers, one of them a very young army private. With the exception of the last two, the murders were respectively three, six, three, four, nine, and three months apart. There's got to be something we're missing here with the timing. Danno, did you find out anything new from the second interview with the Thompson's?"

Danny tried not to grin. "I can now place all three of the girls on the beach by the canoes where we found the last body. Grace Thompson had a little too much tequila and couldn't make it to the ladies room. Let me read from her statement: 'tossed my cookies into a rowboat. I am so never drinking tequila again.'" There was a course of suppressed groans from the assembled officers.

"Do you think they saw anything?" Steve asked, shaking his head. Youth was terribly wasted on the young.

"If they did I doubt they were paying much attention. After that Ivory Thompson and PFC Wilson packed the other girl into their car and drove back to post. Best I can do is placing them in the vicinity."

"You get a tail on those two?"

"As of yesterday afternoon. I've got two men in the barracks and four more working with the MP's as ride alongs. I've got them in army uniforms. Luck would have it HPD has enough men in National Guard and Army Reserve to keep us in bodies for the next six months if we need them."

"At least we caught a break there. Chin, find anything with the tide tables?"

Chin Ho Kelly was studying the computer printout he was holding. "No correlation with high or low tides. No similarities to the places he dumped the bodies except for isolation. No connection between the women whatsoever, except that for other than the Wilson girl, they were all hookers. The only link we have is with the last two and that is only because they were at the same place Friday night. You're right, we're missing something here. Have you checked with the harbormaster and the Navy on ship movements?"

"Kono's on that now," Williams replied. "Ship traffic has more than tripled since the Gulf War. It's going to take a while to crunch all the numbers and cross reference ships with dates."

"There has to be something significant about the dates," Steve said. "I just don't know what it is. What are we missing?" He was looking at the dates once again. The coroner had established the time of death for the last body as Friday night and for the Wilson girl as Saturday evening. That made two deaths in two days, one on Friday, and the other on Saturday. I met Maggie the following Monday, and haven't been able to stop thinking about her since. We were at Maholo's watching the moon rise. "That's it!" he said. "Last weekend was full moon. Danny, check the dates with the almanac. Find out if the moon was full when the other women were killed." _Maggie, honey, I knew there was something special about you_ , he thought, remembering her soft drawling voice, _"Full waning moon, see, there's a little slice gone from the bottom right? It's the perfect combination of ocean breezes and moonlight on water. I'll bet it was spectacular a couple of days ago when it came full."_ As soon as everyone cleared out he was going to order a dozen roses delivered to her office.

Danny started calling off dates. Chin Ho checked them with an online almanac. All were on the night of the full moon.

"Now we're getting somewhere," he said. "Chin, get on the phone with that FBI profiler. First ask him how he missed the connection with the full moon and then tell him to revise the profile using the lunar cycles."

"You got it, Boss," replied Chin. There was nothing he liked better than taking federal agents down a peg or two. He gathered his notes and headed for his office loaded for Feds.

"Danno, now that we've got the funds to pay for the computer time, hit the FBI database. Plug in anything significant and see if it rings any bells, especially for any murders done on the full moon. This monster could have been operating under the radar for a long time, so go back at least twenty years. Query Interpol while you're at it, just in case we're dealing with a foreign national. I don't need to tell you how badly I want this monster."

Danny nodded. It appeared that Steve was taking this personally, but then he was always like that. He remembered one of the first things Steve had told him when he came to work for Five-O. " _We're here to protect the people on these Islands, and that means all of them. It doesn't matter who they are, if they're rich or poor,_ _educated or illiterate, young or old, it doesn't matter. We keep them safe_." Those words should have been carved on the door of Five-O's headquarters.

"I think we all do." Danny strode out the door. It was time to go pester the computer geeks in the basement, especially that little Philippina with the huge brown eyes. He had been looking for an excuse to get to know her better since she started working in the computer lab six months earlier. Well, as his Aunt Clara always said, it was an ill wind that didn't blow someone some good. Maybe today he'd get lucky on all counts.

Steve settled back in his chair, half smiling. The rest of the team cleared out, heading off to their appointed assignments. He called his favorite florist and ordered a dozen roses sent to Maggie's office, knowing you couldn't go wrong with roses. Somehow she had managed to lodge herself into his psyche. He had no idea how, especially since he had never been attracted to very short women, and especially one in uniform. He's seen enough military romances while on both active and reserve duty to know that they seldom ever worked and had managed to avoid them. Only now a very small army sergeant had grabbed his attention and refused to let go. Curiosity was getting the better of him. Picking up his phone, he dialed Naval Personnel Command.

"Hey, Fred," he said when his call went through, "Steve McGarrett here. I need to ask for a very huge favor."

"When aren't you asking for a favor," Fred asked, laughing. "What you need? I'll see what I can do."

"Can you access Army records?"

"Not a problem. It shouldn't even take too long. You gotta love the new computer system. It hooks in directly to Military Personnel Center in St. Louis."

"Can you get me some background info on a non-com. Name is Margaret Alden; rank is sergeant first class, stationed at Ft Shafter. I don't have a service number."

"Got a birthday, that'll help."

"I don't know the day but it's in October, and she's with the 223rd Public Affairs Company."

"Now that'll narrow it down considerably. Give me a minute, gonna have to put you on hold."

Steve spent a good five minutes listening to bad hold music and a warning that the line wasn't secure. Fred eventually came back on the line.

"Found her. Margaret Clairee, totally unpronounceable Cajun maiden name, Alden. Maiden name is spelled T-H-I-B-O-D-E-A-O-U-X and I'm not even going to attempt pronouncing it. No wonderer she changed it when she got married. Born October 9, 1958, home of record is Grande Isle, Louisiana, enlisted right after high school. Blew the top off the old ASVAB test. Made rank at the usual intervals. Was nominated to attend OCS but was then rejected because, get this, she didn't meet height requirements. At the time it was five seven for women, and she topped out at five one and change. Don't let that fool you, this lady is one tough cookie. Listen to this "even though she was pinned under an overturned HumVee, Staff Sergeant Alden managed to bring her weapon to bear, successfully targeting an Iraqi mortar emplacement, destroying the weapon, and killing four enemy combatants" with an M-203 grenade launcher, no less. She earned herself a bronze star and a purple heart, and six months at Walter Reed learning how to walk again."

"You have got to be kidding! You're telling me a tiny little thing like that took out a mortar emplacement with a grenade launcher?"

"The very same woman, apparently she made it her business to learn how to fire every weapon the Army has. Maybe she thought she had something to prove. Is she applying to Five-O? If she is you'd better hire her. I know I would."

"I don't think she's looking for a job. She must have been very badly injured."

"Badly?" That's an understatement. It's a miracle she's still alive, much less up and walking and still in the Army. She had to be able to pass the PT test re-enlist. Apparently she did; I guess she really did have something to prove."

"I suppose I sound old fashioned. I'm not comfortable with women being sent into combat. I guess that makes me an old dinosaur. Hey, I owe you a drink. Give me a call when you get time."

"Doesn't make you a dinosaur, it just means you think things through a little better than some of the jokers at the Pentagon. I swear if either of us ever gets time for anything it'll be after we retire. I'm sending the rest of the info to your email, it's an interesting read. Aloha." Fred hung up the phone, wondering about the reasons behind his buddy's sudden curiosity about the sergeant.

Steve waited long enough for the email to make its way through the filters to his computer. He opened the attachment and started reading. Half an hour later he was still staring at the computer screen. After more than twenty years as a cop, he thought he was beyond surprise. Now he wasn't so sure. What he had just read was a bare bones file that spoke volumes. Four days after Maggie had been injured in an attack on her convoy, while she was probably still unconscious and being medevaced from Germany to the States, her husband's plane had been shot down over hostile territory. According to a note penciled into her file by a clerk at Walter Reed, she didn't know he was dead until nearly six weeks and four major surgeries later, when the doc's decided she was strong enough to hear the news.

Now he knew why there was so much sadness in those deep green eyes. War did that to soldiers. He'd seen it more than he cared to remember, on men returning from combat with memories they didn't want. This was the first time he had ever encountered it in a woman. _The world's changing_ , he thought. _They're not WAC's and WAVES anymore, just soldiers and sailors._ Maggie had enlisted when she was just eighteen. Probably the last thing in the world she had expected was to end up in a war in the desert, losing her husband to enemy fire, or spending six months in hospital after being wounded in combat. _No_ , _she hadn't fought to stay in the Army because of she had something to prove, she had done it as a way of coping with the grief of losing her husband._ It didn't take a psychologist to figure that one out. He had never met a woman like her before. Then it hit him, the realization that in spite of common sense and the fact that he'd only known her for a very short time, he was beginning to fall very hard for that diminutive Army sergeant.

* * *

Maggie, dressed in desert camouflage fatigues and boots, was manning the CQ desk. She was aided and abetted by one of the new troops, a Sp4 Compton. So far he had proven to be a good soldier, making rounds every half hour with no complaints and staying alert. He wasn't very talkative, though, and that was starting to annoy her. Her reporter's senses were setting off alarm bells that told her something was not right and she was determined she'd know what it was before she went off duty.

Around 2230 everything was finally settling down. Midweek duty was usually fairly quiet. Reveille came way too early and even the most dedicated partier was getting ready to call it a night. Maggie stretched and stifled a yawn. She hadn't slept well the night before. She'd been plagued by bad dreams and insomnia since the Gulf War. Same dream, the one with smoke and fire and explosions where she woke up on the medevac plane to Germany, only this time Steve was there holding her hand, which was infinitely better than how the dream usually ended. Tonight, however, it looked like he was going to be a no show. So much for 'I'll drop by to see you', she thought. I really shouldn't be too upset. The roses he had sent to her office that afternoon were beautiful, and best of all had the first sergeant going bonkers trying to figure out who had sent them.

Compton returned from making his rounds, acknowledging that all was well. Maggie was entering the information into the logbook when she heard Compton's chair scrape back as he stood at attention.

"Commander McGarrett," he said. "No one told me you would be stopping in!"

Maggie looked up from the logbook and had one of those moments when the light bulb flashes and everything clicks into place. "He's one of yours, isn't he?" she asked, looking at him over the tops of her glasses. "I thought he was too old to be an E-4. His buddy, too, I'll bet."

Compton looked absolutely miserable. He was a twenty eight year old haole who'd been with HPD for four years, having joined the force after serving in Desert Storm. He wasn't undercover, never had been, and as far as he was concerned, he'd much rather be out on the street in uniform. The only compensation so far was that Ivory Thompson was a knockout and he'd be one happy camper if she'd be nice enough to give him the time of day.

Maggie didn't give Steve time to answer. "Don't you even think about fussing at Compton. He's been doing a very good job. I doubt if he was expecting you to show up. Now would you mind telling me what's going on?"

Steve could tell she was getting angry. Her eyes were flashing like emerald lightening and her drawl was getting thicker. In the desert cammo she seemed smaller than ever. One strand of hair had escaped from the bun at the back of her head and was hanging down in her face. Compton was sweating bullets, waiting to get told off for blowing his cover, and was much relieved when it didn't happen.

"He belongs to HPD. He and a few others are on loan out for the duration. If it helps any, they're all either National Guard or Army Reserves."

"Really," she said. "And what duration would that be? 'Fess up, Compton, what's your real rank?"

"Staff sergeant," he admitted. "The reason for the lower rank was to get us into the junior enlisted barracks."

"Why do I have HPD officers hanging out at my barracks?" she asked, fuming. "Who else knows about this, and, pray tell, when were you planning on letting me in on it?"

Seeing Maggie angry was like watching a Chihuahua tear into a Great Dane, and then he remembered this was the same woman who had taken out a mortar emplacement with a grenade launcher. She had also lost one of her soldiers. If anyone deserved to know the truth, she did. "Officer Compton, could you excuse us for a few minutes? I need to speak with Sgt Alden."

"Not a problem," Compton replied. "By the way, sir, all's quiet and both girls are safe in their room. Marks is just down the hall, and he's checking on them every half hour. I am, too, only I'm doing it on the quarters and he's got top and bottom of the hour."

"Very good, Officer. Maggie, is there some place where we can talk in private?"

"The dayroom's deserted at this hour," she said. "Come on. You've got some 'splainin' to do. I'm going to make the wild assumption that the girls he was referring to are the Thompson's."

Steve nodded. "And to answer your other question, Colonel Dale, the post commander, the MP's and the Provost Marshall know about the HPD surveillance. Your CO didn't want to tell you or Sgt Yablanski because he knew you'd both be worried about the Twins and the first sergeant doesn't know because, again, according to Colonel Dale, he'd screw up a wet dream by showing up. We were all hoping to keep things quiet for as long as possible. I didn't intend for Compton to blow his cover so spectacularly."

"Yeah, well, I suppose I could have warned him you might show up, only where would be the fun in that?" She led him through a set of double doors into a large deserted room. The dayroom was spacious, furnished with soft, comfortable furniture, pool and video games, and a big screen TV. One wall was devoted to vending machines for soft drinks and snacks.

"Sit down," he said, "This is going to take a while. What I'm about to tell you is strictly off the record. I don't want to read about it tomorrow's newspaper."

"I'm all ears," she said. "And I'll decide if it's going into tomorrow's paper. This had better be good. And thank you for the roses. They're beautiful. I'll decide later if they're worth you holding out on me." She was trying to be angry with him and it wasn't working. He was wearing jeans, a white cotton shirt, and a windbreaker to cover his sidearm. For the first time she noticed the lines around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. _He looks tired_ , she thought, _and too damned good looking_. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, he was giving her ideas she hadn't had in a very long time.

He didn't know where else to start, so he started at the beginning. From the first body found at the foot of Diamond Head three years earlier to the body found the day before. He gave her the condensed and censored version of the crimes, leaving out the details they were using as hold back evidence.

"So," she said when he was done, "Let me see if I've got this straight. You knew the second you saw her body that Tami was killed by the same man who had already killed six more women, yet you didn't bother to inform either me, or the rest of command. Then yesterday another body turns up at the same place where three of my soldiers, and no telling how many more of someone else's, were this weekend. Now one of my soldier's is dead and you decide to put the other two under surveillance as possible material witnesses?"

He gave he a half smile that made her pulse quicken. "That's exactly right. I don't know if the Thompson's saw anything," he said. "I'm just not taking any chances. Mama Maliki's is the only connection we have between any of the murders so far. I had the Twins put under surveillance yesterday afternoon, in case the killer decides to go after them. I've seen way too much of this creep's handiwork already. I don't want the Twins ending up floating in the water."

"Is there even the remotest possibility that more female soldiers could be in danger? What about Navy and Marines? If there is, I need to know and I need to get the word out. It's bad enough that women in uniform are the targets of every misogynist in the military, do they have to start worrying about outsiders as well?" She shuddered, involuntarily, wondering if he'd ever had to deal with sexual harassment. Probably not, she decided, or at least not the type that enlisted women had to deal with almost daily.

"To be truthful, I don't know. I think Wilson was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. According to the FBI profiler, the perpetrator has a compulsion driven by the full moon that makes him go out and kill women as some sort of a bizarre ritual. Dan Williams thinks those three girls interrupted him Friday night and didn't get to finish his ritual. We think the killer got a good enough of a look at Wilson to identify her the next day and somehow managed to get her alone. I wish I had more answers for you. I don't. I hope it helps when I tell you we've got every available officer on this, and that includes HPD, the MP's, Provost Marshall, and the Shore Patrol. I want to find this monster before he kills again."

Maggie reached over and took both his hands in hers. "Thank you for caring about my soldiers. Although if anyone tried to go after the Twins when they were together, he'd have one heck of a fight on his hands."

"Yes," he said, "but what if they're not together? Do you think one of them could hold their own against this monster? He's killed eight women that we know of. I'm not going to take chances on their lives."

"What about every other woman in uniform on this rock? When do we let them know? When another body turns up?"

"I don't want any of this appearing on the front page of the Stars and Stripes on the off chance the killer sees it and knows we're onto him."

"Meaning you want me to sit on the story until he's caught?"

"That's about it." He said.

"If I do I want an exclusive when he is caught. And I want an article to appear in every paper on Hawaii advising military women to be extra careful. I'll say its muggers, or a serial groper or a flasher. I'll finesse it so it looks like a minor inconvenience rather than potential danger. But I promise you, another soldier or sailor turns up dead, I go to press."

"Fair enough, although I'm certain he won't strike again until the next full moon. Fax a copy of it over to my office and I'll make sure it gets out to every paper in the state, just in case the creep is island hopping. You've got your exclusive. Now all you have to do is find a way to keep the Twins out of trouble."

Maggie thought for a minute. "I've got an idea that could work better than having HPD babysit them. Wilson's memorial service is Friday morning, then that afternoon we send her home. I'm going to put the Twins on the honor guard. They'll be gone at least a week. Maybe by then the killer will be in jail."

"If I have anything to do with it he will. I've got most of the department out asking questions. Forensics is working overtime, and I have a suspicion that this month's bill for computer time is going to look like the national debt. I'm going to get him and he's going to answer for what he's done."

Maggie saw the intensity in his blue eyes. _He really means it_ , she thought. _He's going to get this monster. No wonder he was Hawaii_ _'_ _s top cop._ Given enough time and manpower, he could move mountains.

She reached up and placed a gentle hand against his cheek. He covered her small hand with his larger one. "You do realize I'm sending the Thompson Twins to Utah to keep them out of the clutches of a serial killer. The Mormon's are never going to forgive me."

"Pretty lady, you are something else," he said, half smiling. He pushed the strand of loose hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. Her eyes met his with the same clear intelligent gaze that had captivated him from the beginning. "There's something I've wanted to do since the first time I looked into those big green eyes."

"And what would that be?"

He stood up, pulling her into his arms as he did. "This," he said, tilting her head back, and bending down, kissed her softly. Her lips parted under his, her arms encircling his neck as he held her close. She felt as if she were melting, her body molding against his. At last, when they broke apart, he smiled down at her. "You have no idea what you are doing to me," he said. "I haven't been able to get you off my mind since I met you."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" she asked, not wanting to admit to the same.

"It's good," he whispered, "It's very good." He kissed her again. She seemed so small and fragile, almost lost in desert cammo and boots.

She didn't want to admit, even to herself, how good having his arms around her felt. It had been too long since anyone had held her. "I'm on duty," she whispered. "I have stuff to do." Exactly what, she couldn't remember. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him back.

"You keep that up," he said, eventually, "and you're going to be out of uniform. I don't think either the Army or HPD is ready for that."

"I'm fairly certain Compton would never recover," she said. The feel of his lean hard body against hers and the clean earthy scent of the sandalwood cologne he was wearing were sending her senses into overload. Long dormant nerve endings were waking up and tingling.

"I need him here keeping an eye on the Twins, not off on a stress day." He sighed, holding her even tighter. "We're both on duty, whether we want to be or not."

 _Story of my life_ , they both thought at about the same time.

"I know," she said "I've got to get back to my post and you look like you could use about ten hours of sleep."

"I'll sleep after I catch this monster," he said.

"My turn to walk you to your car," she said. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they left the building. He was parked in a no parking zone, the police placard on his windshield and the government plates on his car making him immune to parking tickets.

 _What in the world has gotten into me_ , she thought as he drove away. _Maybe I'm just lonely, and, tell the truth, horny as hell._ Or maybe she was being given a second chance for a little happiness. Things were happening way too fast. She went back to the CQ desk. Compton had sense enough to keep quiet.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Four

It was a beautiful day in Honolulu. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The surf was up and calling to every kid with a board. Kono would have loved to have been one of them, only here he was, thirty feet from the water with no board, wearing a suit that was uncomfortably hot, and ready to smack a couple of Samoan heads together if they didn't shut up and get to the point of why they'd actually called the police. HPD had been first on the scene and after briefly questioning the group of kids currently sitting on the sea wall re-thinking the whole 'let's skip school and go surfing' thing, had called Five-O.

"I found it!" screamed the first kid, a fourteen year old with a pierced nose who should have been in school. "It's mine!"

"Liar!" yelled the second kid, a beefy thirteen year old with a Mohawk haircut. "I saw it first; you just grabbed it before I could get there!"

"Enough!" yelled Chin Ho, getting about as tired of all the noise as the Kono. "Why don't you kids make our lives easier by telling us just what the heck it was you found?"

"This," said Mohawk, pulling a battered camera from his backpack. "I saw the camera and the buttpack on the rocks. Looks like someone tossed it out their car or dropped it and was too lazy to go down and get it. I was after it when that moak knocked me down and tried to grab it."

"Did not!" interjected Pierced Nose. "He was no where near the stuff."

Kono was losing patience. "Both of you sit down and shut up. You giving me a headache. What buttpack?" The kid produced a blue nylon fanny pack.

Kono unzipped the pack and pulled out a wallet. Inside was the military ID belonging to Tami Lynn Wilson.

"The Big Man's gonna be happy about dis," he said. "You kids, I'm taking this stuff. You take anything out of this bag? If you did hand it over now or else I'm going to shake it out of you."

Pierced Nose thought about it for a few seconds while making a rapid threat assessment. He was only about 90% sure the big Hawaiian cop wouldn't make good on his threat, but that was enough. He handed over a handful of crumpled bills, a Wells Fargo ATM card, and a VISA card belonging to one Raymond L. Wilson issued by a bank in Salt Lake City. "Wasn't gonna use 'em anyway. Don't have them banks here."

Chin Ho was collecting the names and address of the kids. "You little runts have managed to find the very thing every cop on this island has been looking for this entire week so I'm going to give you a pass on being truant. Today only. I come back by here tomorrow and see any of you, you all going to juvie. We clear?"

"Yes, sir," they muttered. Mohawk asked when they could get their stuff back.

"It's not yours to get back." Kono said. "Now get out of here before we change our mind about taking you to juvie."

The kids wandered off, grumbling about life being unfair. "Come on, buddy," said Chin, "Let's get this to the lab. I wonder if there's film in that camera."

"If it is, it ought to be good," said Kono. "Lens is cracked but the body looks intact. You think dat little girl got a picture of who killed her?"

"We can always hope."

* * *

Someone was pounding on the door, making enough noise to wake the dead and one sleeping female non-com. Maggie sat up in bed, breathing hard, heart pounding, momentarily unsure where she was. _Barracks_ , she thought, once again going through the litany the shrinks at Walter Reed had taught her _, the BEQ at Ft Shafter, Hawaii. Lu is my roommate. I've been here three months. No one is firing missiles at me. The only sand is on the beach, and someone is knocking on my door._

"Give me a minute," she called, searching for her glasses. She put then on and the world popped into focus. She looked at the clock. 1130 hours. She'd been sleeping for all of forty five minutes. She opened the door to find the Thompson Twins standing in the hallway, looking sheepish, with Compton doing his best to blend in with the scenery and failing miserably. "This had better be good," she warned.

"Sorry, Sgt Alden," said Ivory. "We tried to find Sgt Y, only she's off shooting Marines pretending to invade Hawaii. Can we come in? We're ducking the First Sergeant. He's royally pissed 'cause the CO put us on the honor guard."

"Yeah, you two can. Compton, wait in the lobby." The Twins made themselves comfortable, Ivory sitting cross legged on the bed and Ebony draping herself over the desk chair. "What's up?"

"Remember how the Five-O kept asking us if we remembered anything else about last Friday?" asked Ebony. "Well, we kinda sorta forgot about something that might be important."

"This morning we're going to the dry cleaners to pick up our Class A's for tomorrow," said Ivory. "Ebony was getting some change out of the glove box when she found this." Ivory reached in the cargo pocket of her uniform pants and pulled out a square yellow and green one use camera.

"Tami had this Friday night," Ebony said. "She was taking pictures of everything. When we heard about the body they found at Mama Maliki's we were thinking that maybe she accidentally got a picture of the dude who did it."

"We were going to get Sgt Y to develop the film, only she's not here and we don't trust anyone else," said Ivory. "We were wondering if you could get the camera to the police before the First Sergeant finds out we have it. That a-hole is on a tear today."

Maggie took a deep breathe, exasperated with the Twins but happy to have an excuse to see a certain tall police detective. "I'll get it to them this afternoon. Anything else I need to know before I head out?"

"Yeah," said Ivory, "who the hell is Compton, and if he doesn't quit following us around like a sick calf we're going to have to hurt him."

Maggie's eyes rolled skyward, as they often did when she was dealing with the Twins. "That won't be necessary. He's not following you. He's guarding you, along with his buddy Marks and few others. They're all with the Honolulu PD. Commander McGarret thought it would be a good idea to keep tabs on you two after they found the body at Mama Maliki's. He doesn't think you're in any kind of danger only he doesn't want to take chances either. Don't give Compton or the others a hard time and don't get any ideas about trying to ditch them. And for heaven's sake, don't let Hardin know."

Ebony's eyes widened. "Wow! Police protection! Cool! I think he's got a crush on Ivory."

"Only thing gone get crushed are his nuts if he doesn't back off," Ivory said, as her skin blushed darker.

"Best behavior, you two," said Maggie. "You have a very serious mission for tomorrow. Now out of here. I need to get dressed and get the camera to the police. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe she did get a picture. Compton's in the lobby, take him with you."

The Twins left. Maggie showered and dressed in long cotton batik empire waist dress in shades of teal green and peacock blue. The dress had thin straps and tied with a ribbon just below her breasts, making it impossible to wear a bra and a lower cut back than she was really comfortable with. She added a short ecru lace top, brushed and braided her hair, grabbed her favorite Dooney bag, and headed out the door into the Hawaiian sunshine. It was a ragtop kind of day. She could tell by the dull throbbing pain in her lower back that rain would soon be moving into the area, but for now the sun was shining and soft breeze was blowing in from across the ocean. She hit the button to lower the top on the Mustang and dropped it into first gear, the big Ford engine purring like an exceptionally large kitten and Jimmy Buffett blasting from the stereo.

* * *

There was some serious gloating going on at 5-0. Chin Ho and Kono had dropped the newly found camera and fanny pack off at the lab and were waiting for results. Dan Williams came in with a stack of fresh computer printouts, results of the queries to the FBI and Interpol. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.

"Film was still in the camera," said Kono. "It's being develop now."

"Everything was dusted for prints," said Kelly, "Only there's too many of them to make a match from the camera. There's still some hope about the pack, but Che's not making any promises."

"At least we've got the film," McGarret said. "Danno, what did the whiz kids in the computer room find?"

"Stuff we didn't have had access to last year. You called it right when you told the governor we needed those new computers. What we've found so far is a string of bodies from Washington State to Middle East, all with the same or very similar cause of death, all killed on the night of the full moon. All were found in port cities, so I'm beginning to think our man is a sailor. I couldn't tell you if he's Merchant Marine or Navy. However, there are two incidents on Navy ships that were close enough to send up a red flag."

"What would that be?" Steve asked, curious as to how the Navy fit into the puzzle.

"Two separate incidents on two different ships, two women listed as suicides, one off the _North Star_ and one off the _Andromeda._ Their clothes, minus underwear, were found on the weather decks, neatly folded and stacked. It was assumed they stripped down to their underwear and jumped since neither body was ever found. I'm not so sure. I checked the dates; both were at the full moon."

"I know the _North Star_. It was the first Navy ship with women sailors. As I recall they weren't exactly welcomed." Steve had read the reports and had gone to a few mandated classes where the _North Star_ was used as an example of how not to run a ship.

Danny consulted the print out. "Yeah, and the _Andromeda_ was the ship that came back from the Gulf War with about 10% of the female crew pregnant."

"Well, they didn't get that way by themselves." McGarrett said, thinking it might just be time to put in that request for retirement from the Reserves. Some things were changing way too fast. "For now, let's work the Navy angle. Find out what ships were in area when the murders occurred. That'll narrow it down a bit. Then check to see if any names from the _North Star_ and _Andromeda_ match. Danno, looks like you're becoming our go to computer guy."

"It's not me, Steve. There's one very smart computer techie down there in the basement. She can make those machines sing. All I have to do is tell her what tune."

Danny was gathering up the printouts when Jenny knocked. "Sorry to bother you," she said, "there's a Sgt Alden here to see you."

"Send her in, please." Steve said. Danny noticed that Steve suddenly looked happier than he had all day.

All the men stood as Maggie entered the room. Maggie in uniform was attractive in a neat and professional way. Maggie in civvies could only be described as a quietly stunning. She wasn't pretty in the conventional sense; she was too short and too curvy for that. Her skin was lightly tanned and rosy from the drive with the top down, and she'd taken time to unbraid and brush her hair to repair the wind damage. Now it cascaded down her back in a sheet of pure silver. The low v-cut neckline of her dress showed the curve of firm tanned breasts, a delicate rosebud tattoo curving around the left one. A silver pendant of a small star nestled between them. Steve introduced her to the rest of the group. "You know Dan Williams already. This is Chin Ho Kelly, and Kono, our expert on all things Hawaiian." She shook hands all around. She was the smallest white woman Kono had ever met, her hand disappearing into his huge paw.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Steve asked. That caused a few odd looks between the rest of the detectives. The Big Man seemed to have a very intimate knowledge of the army sergeant's schedule.

"Blame it on the Thompson's." She took the camera out of her bag. "Those two have got to slow down on the tequila. They forgot all about this until this morning. Tami had this little camera with her Friday night taking pictures of anything that moved. The Twins thought it might be of some use."

The whole team resisted the urge to high five each other on the grounds of looking unprofessional in the presence of a pretty female. Kono's face lit up in a huge grin. "We got this, Boss. First we find the camera on the beach, now we got this one. We on a roll for sure."

"What camera on the beach?" Maggie wanted to know.

Chin Ho filled her in on the camera and the fanny pack. Steve's phone rang with Che Fong requesting they come to the lab at once. He told Fong they'd be there in ten minutes.

"Danny, go light a fire under those computer techs. Chin, Kono, with me. Maggie, could you wait here? I'll be back as soon as possible." To the surprise of everyone present, he bent down and kissed her gently on the top of the head, breathing in the scent of sunshine, shampoo, and the perfume that was driving him mad.

"I'll be here." She said, eyeing a very comfortable looking sofa against the back wall. "I won't guarantee I'll still be awake."

* * *

Fong had the pictures. Half the roll had been blank. The last two were the only ones that really counted. One was a profile shot of a man behind the wheel of a military vehicle, probably a HumVee. The shot was out of focus and blurred from movement. The second, and the last one on the roll of film, was of a male hand reaching toward the camera.

"She got his picture." Kono said. "That little girl got the bastard's picture. She knew what he was going to do and that she wasn't going to let him get away with it. That was one brave little _wahine_." The big Hawaiian was very close to tears.

"I can enlarge the picture of the hand enough to maybe get a usable print, but it's going to be a big maybe. I've sent the negatives and a copy of the profile picture to the photo lab at the university. They've got some new editing software that may help."

Chin handed him the throw away camera, now sealed in a proper evidence envelope. "See what you can get off this. The dead girl was taking pictures Friday night. Maybe she got a better shot."

"There's one more thing," Che said. "We found the Wilson girl on two shots from the security cameras at the _Arizona_ memorial. In one of them she's talking to a man, unfortunately his back is turned away from the camera." He handed McGarret the print. The shot of Wilson was sharp enough to read the print on her BYU tee shirt, and while the man's back was to the camera, it was clear that he was military.

"I think we've got our man." Steve said. "Kono, head down to the computer lab, confirm with Danny that we're looking at the military, probably the Navy. Find out who was in port this weekend. I told the governor that new computer system was going to pay off. All we had to do was figure out what to ask it."

Steve got back to his office just as Jenny was returning from lunch.

"I put your dry cleaning in your office. Did you know there's a woman sleeping on your sofa?"

"She had duty last night," he provided by way of explanation.

Jenny nodded. She was use to Steve's sometimes obtuse explanations. There were times when she wondered if he was her boss, a spare husband, or an extra child. "The governor's office called while you were out to remind you to be at the Capitol Building tomorrow night at eight."

He'd forgotten all about the reception at the governor's. "Send my regrets. Tell him I'm in the middle of something."

"He said you'd say that and to tell you no dice. Your presence has been ordered, not requested." Jenny didn't miss much; she'd seen the look Steve had given Maggie when she came in. "You could ask the woman sleeping in your office."

"Can you find me a cup of tea, please?"

Jenny looked her boss quizzically. "I've got regular old Lipton and chamomile. Which one?"

"Chamomile will be fine." He'd heard it was something women drank.

"Back in a jiff." Jenny headed off to the break room. This was a first, tea instead of coffee. She returned a few minutes later with a cup of tea with a lemon wedge clinging to the rim and packets of sugar.

He took the cup, carrying it into his office and kneeling down beside the sofa. Maggie was curled up on her side, long hair spilling over the throw pillows, looking soft and sweet and giving him a near irresistible urge to bury his face in her breasts and drink in the warm scent of her skin. "Maggie," he whispered instead, "Time to wake up." It was Navy standard protocol for waking up your relief. Call their name softly but never, ever, touch a sleeping sailor. He suspected the Army had some of the same rules in place.

She sat up at the sound of her name, eyes unfocused without her glasses.

"Is that chamomile?" she asked. He handed her the cup. "You are a love. This is just what I needed. Thank you."

"What you need is to go home and go to bed." He pushed a lock of her hair out of her face, tucking it behind an ear. He was starting to enjoy doing that. "Where are your car keys?"

"In my bag. Why?"

"You're too tired to drive, that's why. I'm driving you home. Give me your keys." He went over to his desk and dialed Williams. "Hey, Danno, Maggie's falling asleep on her feet. I'm going to drive her home. Can you pick me up at the BEQ on Ft Shafter in about an hour and a half?"

"Sure," Danny said. "You know, that woman deserves more than an hour and a half."

"Don't you think I know that already?"

"Well," Danny started.

"Don't answer that. Just pick me up in an hour and a half."

He hung up the phone. Maggie was just finishing her tea. "Come on, let's get you home."

* * *

The first time Steve had seen Maggie's yellow Mustang was the day he'd met her. He had to admit that at the time he was paying more attention to her than to the car. Now it sat by the curb with the top down radiating innocence.

"You're going to have to push the seat back," she said from the passenger side. "The controls are on the door." He could see that she had moved the driver's seat as far forward as possible. He found the button that moved the seat back, got in, and discovered it was a five speed. It had been ages since he'd driven a stick. He engaged the clutch and turned the key, hearing the familiar heavy purr of a big Ford engine.

"What have you got under this thing's hood?" he asked.

"Coyote 5.5, 412 horsepower, V-8 engine. She's fast, kinda squirrelly in the rear on wet pavement, other than that, she's a keeper."

There were less than twelve thousand miles on the clock. She must have bought the car just before she shipped out to Hawaii. A pentacle hung from the rear view mirror by a beaded chain. "Wiccan?"

"Yes," she said. "Does it matter?"

He took her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing it softly, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her skin tingle. "You know, as soon as I think I've got you figured out, something else takes me by surprise." He released her hand, shifted into first gear, and pulled out into traffic.

* * *

Danny, Kono, and Chin stood on the balcony overlooking the parking lot. They had spent the last ten minutes watching Steve try to figure out how to get the driver's seat of the little yellow convertible pushed back and then fold his long frame into the small car.

"At least he hasn't forgotten how to drive a stick," Danny observed.

Chin lit his pipe. The new government mandated smoking regulations were starting to get annoying. At least he could still light up on the balcony and in Steve's office without getting yelled at. "That's one pretty little woman. If I knew Army sergeants looked like that I wouldn't have joined the Navy."

"'Dat one's different," Kono observed. "She got lots of manna. That little _menehune_ is one special lady. Wonder if the Big Man knows it yet."

 _"_ _Menehune_?" asked Danny. Sometimes Kono's cultural references went right over his head. "I thought _menehune_ were like dwarfs or elves and not nearly as cute as that little sergeant."

"Shows what you don't know about Hawaiian folklore," Kono said. " _Menehune_ are little people with big magic. They are the free spirits that bring on big love. The Big Man is one lucky _kuhuna_."

"Maybe some of that luck will rub off on this case," Danny observed.

 _"_ _Menehune's_ always bring luck. I think today we got a whole lot of it. Come on, let's go do some police work."

* * *

"Sweet ride," he said as he parked the 'Stang at the BEQ.

"Put the top up," she said, sleepily, "it's going to rain." There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but he did as she asked.

She leaned against him as they walked into the building. "It's been years since I tried to sneak a man into the barracks. Come to think of it, I ended up married to that one."

"How long have you been awake? You're getting a little silly." She was limping slightly, as if she were in pain and not wanting to admit it. She had spent six months at Walter Reed learning how to walk again. He wondered just how badly she'd been hurt and when she was going to feel comfortable enough to tell him.

"Too long."

"I thought so. Where's your room?"

"Upstairs. 212B. Key's on the ring with the car key. " As she started up the steps the muscle spasm hit. She grabbed the rail for support. "Give me a minute," she said. "I'm fine, just my spine reminding me it's in there. Happens when I'm tired or when it's going to rain."

He didn't say anything, just swept her into his arms and carried her up the stairs.

"Hmmmm," she said, resting her head on his shoulder, "didn't know I was going to get room service."

He managed to get the door unlocked. Inside, he put her down on the neatly made bed. A pair of folded pale green silk pajamas was lying on the pillow. He handed them to her. "Need help getting undressed?"

"Not at this time. Sorry." She disappeared into the bathroom. A few minutes later she emerged, wearing the pajamas.

Steve had hung his sidearm and suit jacket over the chair back, loosened his tie, and turned down the bed. "Get in there," he said.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"I thought I'd hold you until you fell asleep. That is, if you want me to."

She gave him a sleepy smile that went straight to the part of his brain labeled 'lust'. "Best offer I've had in ages. I'm too sleepy for anything else." She got under the covers. She snuggled close as he lay down next to her on the narrow bed. "This is nice. I took the pain meds. I don't take them that often because they make me loopy."

He was stroking her hair, and she was snuggling closer, feeling a sense of security that she hadn't felt in a very, very long time, resting her head on his chest, listening to the rhythm of his heart beating.

"You can be as loopy as you want. When are you going to tell me why you need those things anyway?"

"When I'm not loopy from taking them. This is nice. It's been a long time since anyone held me like this. This feels so good. Am I babbling?"

He laughed a bit at that. One day, just not today. He could wait. He wasn't planning on going anywhere. "Just a little. There's a reception at the Governor's Palace tomorrow night. It's black tie. Want to go?"

"Sure," she said sleepily. "What time?"

"I'll pick you up at seven thirty."

"An official date. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that."

"You've got until tomorrow night to get use to the idea."

"Yeah... sounds…" She had drifted off to sleep. He was feeling more relaxed than he had in longer than he cared to remember. Somehow this just felt right. The cell phone vibrated in his pocket just as he was nodding off. "Yeah" he said, softly, not wanting to wake her. If nothing else, Danny was prompt. "Be down in a minute."

He strapped on the gun, put on his jacket, and straightened his tie. He pulled the covers up over her shoulders and kissed her gently on the cheek. As he was leaving he noticed a picture of a stocky blonde man wearing a flight suit on the dresser. Her late husband, he surmised; looked to be in his late thirties and dead these past five years. He glanced over at Maggie, sleeping peacefully, snuggled under the covers. He wondered if the man had known just how special she was.

He locked the door and left.

* * *

Danny was waiting in the parking lot. "How was the drive over in that little girly car?" he asked.

"The only thing girly about that car is the yellow paint." Steve filled him in on the Coyote engine.

"Whoa! You think she knows what she's got?"

"I'm sure she does. That's not a stock engine."

"It was kinda fun watching you try to fold up into that little car."

"What?"

"If you think that Kono, Chin and me were going to pass up the opportunity of watching you get into that little girly car, you are mistaken. We were all watching from the balcony."

"You were supposed to be in the computer lab," he said, trying to change the subject. "Anything new from the techies?" he asked.

"Got a list of ships that were in port Friday night. A bunch of them left Sunday. The harbormaster and the Admiral have agreed to hold all ships currently in port here for another twenty four hours in case our doer is on one of them."

"I don't think very many sailors are going to object to another day here."

"Probably not, even if it is going to rain," Danny was frowning. "So, how serious is this getting?"

"It's a murder case, Danno, it's always serious."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it."

Steve was silent for a while.

"Not nearly as serious as I'd like. I've never met anyone like her before."

"Kono's calling her the Little _Menehune._ Says she's got powerful magic. She does seem rather unique. I'll give her that much. I mean, you just met her and isn't she a lot younger than you are?"

"Not by that much. A Little _Menehune._ She must have made quiet an impression on Kono. He's given an Island name to a woman from Louisiana. I don't think he's ever done that before."

"Never knew you to be attracted to military women before either. Hell, I thought you avoided dating them, and besides, isn't she married? I could have sworn she had on a wedding ring the first time I met her."

"She's a widow. Her husband was killed in the Gulf War. I never dated service women because I'd seen too many military relationships that ended in disaster to ever want to try one. And then this tiny little woman comes along and I don't know if I'm coming, going, or standing still."

"Sounds like you've got it bad."

Steve didn't say anything. Danny had called it right.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Five

The memorial service was over. The CO had said a few words, the Mormon bishop had led a short service, and the Thompson's had sang _Amazing Grace_ and a rendition of _The Wind Beneath My Wings_ that didn't leave a dry eye in house.

It was pouring rain as the small procession made its way to the airport, escorted by HPD motorcycles and two squad cars. Maggie got the members of the honor guard checked into their flight. Compton, detailed as part of the escort team, was wearing Class A's with the correct rank and a load of ribbons that attested to service during the Gulf War.

"You were on the Highway to Hell," Maggie said. "And now you get to babysit the Thompson's. You must not be living right." She handed him the folded flag in its case. "Don't lose this."

"I won't. I'll try to keep the Twins out of trouble."

"Good luck with that." She left the passenger terminal and drove to the cargo area. The casket had been wrapped in plastic to protect it from the elements. She stood at attention in the pouring rain with the rest of the honor guard as the casket was loaded on the plane.

Steve was waiting for her at the cargo terminal. "You're soaking wet," he observed. "You're going to catch pneumonia."

"I'll dry. What are you doing here?"

"It's a standard surveillance procedure for murder victims. Sometimes the killer shows up to admire the results. I've got a dozen officers covering the funeral and the procession, just in case. They're there to make note of anything out of the ordinary. And it was a good excuse to see you. That was a very nice service. I didn't know the Twins could sing that well."

"What am I suppose to do with you? You are … damnit! When you're around I can't think straight. Uh, last night, did you ask me to go to a reception at the Governor's Palace tonight or did I just dream that up."

"I did. And you said yes. I'm picking you up at seven thirty tonight."

"Oh. Okay. You did say black tie? Right?"

"I'm wearing a tux. You wear something sexy."

"I don't think I own anything sexy."

"You're looking kind of sexy right now, the way that uniform is clinging."

"I've got to go get into dry clothes. I'll see you tonight."

He bent down and kissed her cheek. "Doesn't matter what you wear, you'll look beautiful to me."

* * *

All the members of the various honor guards had been given the afternoon off. Maggie drove back to Ft Shafter on the verge of panic. It was two in the afternoon and she didn't have a thing to wear to the reception or time to shop. Back at her room at the BEQ she stripped off her wet uniform, removing the brass and ribbons from the jacket before hanging it in the shower to drip dry next to Lu's equally soaked jacket. _Good,_ she thought, _she's in. Maybe Lu's got something suitable that I can hem really quickly._

"Hey, is that my new Terry Pratchett book?" she said, poking her head through the door. Lu was lying on her bed, reading. "Help! I need a posh frock to wear to a party at the Governor's Palace!"

"You're kidding, right?" Lu asked, looking up from her book.

"Nope. Steve asked me yesterday and I must have been so tired I spaced it. He's going to be in a tux. I haven't got a thing to wear!"

Lu joined Maggie in her room. "Let's see what you've got in the closet that isn't five years out of date." She began pulling out dresses, none of which could be considered formalwear. "I swear you dress like a hippie. Aha! Score!" She pulled a zippered garment bag out of the very back of the closet. "Here you go. You look great in this."

"Those are my Mess Blues! I can't wear those!"

"I don't know why not. You look damn good in them too. Besides, can you imagine the looks he's going to get when he walks in with you on his arm wearing that? Trust me, it'll work. Now we gotta do something with your hair…"

* * *

Danny didn't even bother knocking. He dropped a pile of computer printouts on Steve's desk. "Damn, I'm good. I found 22 names in common with the _Andromeda_ and the _North Star_. Seven of them belong to women, so those were out right away. That left five names on this list still on active duty who served on both ships. None of them are on any of the ships currently in the harbor. That leaves the fleet that left on Sunday afternoon. The techies were having trouble with that because it contains two carrier battle groups, and that's one hell of a lot of sailors."

"Carriers have thousands of sailors on board. It's going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Steve said. "At least we're getting closer."

"Closer than you think." Danny was smiling and looking exceptionally pleased with himself. "We lucked out with the throw away camera. Remember the man in the picture from the security camera at the _Arizona_ and the one from the camera found on the beach? Those computer jocks used some fancy facial recognition software and matched him up to one of the pictures the Wilson girl took Friday night, then cross referenced it with Navy ID photos. We've got him. He's on the _Edmonds_. His name is Donald Wayne Waldrop. He's number 4 on the list."

"Yes!" McGarret said. "Where's the _Edmonds_?"

"Ahead of you on that one, too. The _Edmonds_ _'_ _s_ at sea, next stop is Singapore on Wednesday morning."

"We got him, Danno. Now to wrap him up so tight he can't get away. Get on the phone with the attorney general. Get extradition papers and arrest warrants. I'm going to see Admiral Donner. We're going to have to ask for the Navy's help on this one."

Kono and Kelly came in, both were grinning ear to ear. Kono was looking nearly as pleased with himself as Danny. "We got him, Boss! I knew that Little _Menehune_ with the moonlight hair was good luck! Now all we gotta do is go get him."

"We're working on that now, Kono."

"Too bad Hawaii doesn't have the death penalty. I'd love to see that guy fry." Kono had taken hunting down this monster very personally. Two of the women killed had been native Hawaiians.

"Hawaii doesn't, but the military does." Steve said. He got up, grabbing his jacket from the coatrack behind his desk. "He snatched the Wilson girl while driving a military vehicle. Kono, check every motorpool on the island for any vehicle signed out for the _Edmonds_. Find the one he had and impound it. Have the lab boys go over it with microscope to see what they can come up with. Danno, get back to the computers. Find out as much as you can about the women who took the dive off the back of those ships. And I mean everything including state of mind. See if you can run down any of their buddies while you're at it. And get their dog tags listed on a search warrant. He's a trophy hunter. If he killed them, he'll have the dogtags. Call me when you get the info. I'm off to see the Admiral. I'll see the governor at the reception tonight."

"You have a date for this one?" Danny asked.

"Yes, a very magical one. Call my cell if anything new turns up."

"What's up with the Big Man," Kono asked after McGarrett had left.

Chin took a thoughtful puff on his pipe. "Something that might just get you what you want."

* * *

Lu put the last hairpin in Maggie's hair and gave it a light spritz of hair spray. "Perfect," she said. She had woven Maggie's long silver hair into a coronet of French braids. "Thank the gods Mess Blues don't require a hat. You'd never get one on over all that hair."

"Here," said Maggie, handing Lu the neckband that fit over the white ruffled shirt, "I never can get one of these damned things on right."

Lu hooked the ends of the ribbon together and helped Maggie into the short tailored jacket, complete with all the brass, ribbons, medals, service stripes, and rank insignia that went with it. "How do I look?"

"Like a recruiting poster wished it looked. Damn, girl, you were born to wear that uniform."

"Then why am I so nervous?" She brushed an imaginary lint speck of the long skirt. "Lu, I swear, I'm going to throw up. I'd rather face another pack of Iraqi insurgents. I can't do this."

"Yes, you can. Hold still, let me see if I can tighten that cummerbund, you've lost weight since the last time you wore this."

Maggie sighed. "Actually, I've gained some back. The last time I wore this was when they pinned those medals on in DC. I was still a bonerack."

"Well, that explains this," Lu said, removing the black mourning band from the left sleeve. "At least you had the new patches sewn on. You like this guy, right? He seems nice enough. I mean, hell, he's like some kind of supercop. You couldn't be safer."

"What if I don't want safe? What if what I really want is for him to rip this uniform off me and screw my brains out? Oh, god, I can't believe I just said that!"

"Well, do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Want him to rip that uniform off and screw your brains out?"

"Well, maybe not rip it off, since it did cost a lot of money. But, yeah, since I've met him my libido has woken up and is about to explode. Lu, after the doctor's got done I didn't even know I had a libido anymore and now the only thing holding me back is what'll happen if I take my clothes off. The Igor's left some fairly impressive scars. I look like crazy quilt stitched together by a blind seamstress."

"Does this mean you're planning on sleeping with him?" Lu asked, curious. She had known Maggie for a long time, long enough to know that she didn't go in for casual relationships.

"Sleeping was not what I had in mind. Doesn't that sound horrible? I sound worse than that bunch of horn dogs over at the junior enlisted barracks. And it's not just about sex. He's comfortable to be around. It's like I've known him all my life, which can't be, because I only just met him. This is all happening way, way too fast. Part of me says slow it down, the rest of me says grab on, don't let go, and enjoy the ride because you never know what'll happen tomorrow."

Any other speculation was ended when the CQ called to tell her Steve was waiting in the lobby. Lu grabbed her camera, instructed her to wait at least three minutes, and headed out the door. Maggie dabbed perfume at her throat, wrists, and the back of her neck, took a deep breath, and went out to face a bigger challenge than the Republican Guard.

Steve was waiting in the lobby when Lu came downstairs. _Damn_ , she thought, _that man looks good enough to eat for dinner. No wonder the girls as horny as a toad._

"She'll be down in a minute. I'm taking pictures. It's not very often I can get her dressed up. Looking good yourself there, commander."

Before he could answer, Maggie came down the stairs, looking more elegant and serene in the Blues than she felt.

"You look gorgeous," he said, bending down to kiss her cheek.

"Thank you," she said. "I told you I didn't own anything sexy. This is what happens when you don't have time to shop for a dress. You look very handsome yourself."

"I got you a corsage," he said, handing her the plastic box from the florist. Inside rested a perfect plumaria blossom on a dark green ribbon that was the exact shade as her eyes. "I didn't know you'd be in uniform." _She's beautiful!_ _Kono's right, she is magic and her hair is the color of moonlight._

"I'm wearing it anyway, regulation or not," she said as he slipped the ribbon over her left wrist.

"Pictures," Lu reminded them. "Quit making goo goo eyes at each other and look at the camera." The camera flashed, catching the look that passed between them.

"Beautiful," she said, "Maggie stand on the first step please. That way the height difference isn't so bad.' The camera flashed at least six more times.

"Good idea, Alphabet," came a voice from the dayroom door. Hardin had seen the flash and had to find out what was going on. "Short Round there's so little she's hard to see."

"Rude assed nosey bastard," Lu muttered.

Hardin wandered over. "Where you going all dressed up, Short Round? And where'd you find this joker? Shopping for your next SGLI check?"

"That's it," Maggie said, her face tight and pale with anger. "I have had enough bullshit out of you to last a freaking lifetime. With all the combat experience you keep going on about you ought to know what the hell a short round is. And in case you don't, I'll enlighten you. It's a round that you fire yourself and for some reason it either doubles back or goes straight up and then comes back and fucks you right the fuck up. Now get the hell out of my face and stay out before something bad happens to you."

Hardin was speechless. Maggie was clenching her jaw and her face pale with rage. Steve was wondering if he was going to have to shoot Hardin. Lu was doing her best to keep from laughing, and losing the battle.

"She got you good, Top." She said, laughing, defusing the situation nicely. "You guys are gonna be late. Out of here you two, and don't let this dickwad spoil your evening. Come on, Top, I'll buy you a beer."

As they walked to the car, Steve could see that she was nearly in tears. He opened her door and helped her tuck her long skirt in. He kissed her softly. "If you'd like I can go back and shoot him."

"He is so not worth it," she said.

Steve got in and started the car. "What was that he said to you? Not the 'short round', the other one that got you so upset."

"SGLI. Soldiers Group Life Insurance. It's what you get when your spouse gets killed in action. Just before the Gulf War congress was nice enough to up it to 300K. At the time, I didn't think I'd ever need it and I sure as hell didn't want it." She took a deep breath. She was looking off into space, eyes focused on nothing. The thousand yard stare had returned, making Steve want to find Hardin and beat him to pulp. "Only things happen. Things you never even wanted to think about, much less talk about. To me it was just a box on a form that needed to be checked. So we both checked ours. I survived. He didn't. DOD gave me a check. I'd have rather had my husband. Sorry for the very unladylike language. Usually I try to avoid using it."

"Are you going to be all right?"

"I'm good now." She looked over at him, giving him a small Mona Lisa smile. "Things happen and things change. I never expected to be a widow at thirty-one. You have all these hopes and dreams and then one day, in a matter of a few seconds, everything changes. For a while there I thought my world had ended. Only it didn't. The earth kept turning, the sun kept coming up, and the moon kept on shining. Life went on, and as much as I tried to avoid it, it seems that it's found me and I'm ready to start living again. I'm glad you're here. For some unfathomable reason I'm very glad you're here." She could feel the blush starting from her throat and moving upward. "I'm sorry; I have a tendency to babble when I'm nervous."

He took her hand, held it to his lips, and inhaled the perfume that haunted his dreams. "Good, because I'm very glad you're here, too. You can babble all you want. I could listen to that southern drawl all night. I've got some very good news for you." She could see him smiling in the semi darkness. "We got him."

"Got who?" she said, and then realized what he was referring to. "Oh, my god! You mean you got the man who killed Tami and the rest of those women!"

"That's exactly what I mean. I can't give you the details right now, and I certainly don't want this going to press until he's in custody. We know who he is and where he is and as of this afternoon we're getting the paperwork ready to extradite him back here. And the only reason I'm telling you that much is because I'm flying out to Singapore very early Monday morning and didn't want you to think I'd leave without telling you."

"Singapore? What's he doing in Singapore?"

"I'll tell you when I get back. Then you'll have your exclusive. By the way, if it wasn't for the information supplied by you and the Twins, we'd still be looking for the creep."

"The only thing we did was answer a few questions and bring you a camera."

"No, sweetie, what you did was point out to me that the moon was full the night the Wilson girl was killed. If I hadn't been standing on the end of that pier watching the moon rise over the water with you, I'd never have thought of comparing the dates to the phases of the moon. And my offer to show you sunrise over the Pacific still stands."

She held his hand to her cheek, and then kissed it softly. "I think I would like that very much."

* * *

The Capitol Building was located in the historical district between Punchbowl and Richards Street, behind Iolani Palace.

"I must have been really tired when I drove by here the other day. I don't remember even seeing the building," Maggie said, eyes wide with wonder. "I love the name of this street, although I doubt I'm pronouncing it right."

"It's pronounced like 'leaky', like a leaky faucet. 'LeakyLeaky' street. It's not that far from my office. I'll bring you back for a tour later," he said. He liked the idea of showing her the Islands and seeing them through her eyes. The entry hall was blazing with lights and a small chamber orchestra was playing in the wings.

"Ah, Mr. McGarrett," said the liveried butler. "I'm pleased that you could make it this evening. And who is this charming young lady?"

Steve introduced Maggie. The butler nodded, writing her information down on a small ivory card. "This way, please," he said, and leading them into the ballroom announcing "Commander Steven McGarrett, Hawaii Five-O and Sergeant First Class Margaret Alden, United States Army." as the camera's flashed.

Lu had been right. Heads turned. She placed her hand on his arm as he escorted her into the ballroom. He had felt her fingers tighten as the cameras flashed. She hadn't been expecting flashing lights. He could feel the tension emitting from her. He covered her smaller hand with is larger one and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You'll do fine," he said. "You're the most beautiful woman here." Steve introduced Maggie to the governor and his wife as the cameras flashed again.

"Very pleased to meet you, Sgt Alden," he said. He shook hands with the small army sergeant. The medals on her uniform didn't seem to go with the rest of the package but he knew they had to be authentic. "Have you been in Hawaii very long?"

"Not long," she said. "But from what I've seen so far, I'm really starting to like it here." She looked up at Steve, smiling, as the cameras flashed.

"Would you mind if I borrowed Commander McGarrett for a few minutes? There are some things we need to talk about. I won't keep him long."

"Not a problem, sir. Just bring him back when you're done. I don't know anyone else here." She took a glass of white wine from a passing waiter.

The governor's wife rolled her eyes ceilingward. "Leave it to my husband and Steve McGarrett to abandon a lady right before the dancing starts. Come with me, Sergeant. I'll show you around while the men discuss boy stuff." She led Maggie over to a group of women and began introductions. Soon they were all deep into a discussion about uniforms, dress shops, and men who waited until the last minute to ask things.

"Well, Steve," said the governor, "it looks like your new lady friend is making herself at home."

"It's the Southern charm. It's hard to resist."

"One of these days you're going to have to let me in on how you managed to find a woman who earned all those medals and looks like she should be teaching kindergarten. Steve, my phone has been ringing all afternoon. I've had calls from the AG and from the Navy commander at Pearl. What the hell are you trying to pull?"

"We got him, sir. We got the creep who's been killing all those women. He's on the _Edmonds_ , and at sea. The ship pulls into Singapore Wednesday. We're going to be there when it docks and bring him back here to justice."

"Who's justice, Steve? Hawaii's or the Navy's? Do you think you can pull this one off? Enlighten me as to how."

"Does it matter whose justice, as long as it's served? Dan Williams is going representing the state of Hawaii. I will be temporarily activated by the Navy. If we find what I think we're going to find, I take him into military custody. If we don't, we do it on behalf of Hawaii. Either way we're covered and he's coming back here. He'll either face a jury, or a court martial. I really don't care which one as long as we get him off the streets and out of circulation."

"The AG thinks all this is legal. I certainly hope so. He's killed what, eight women?"

"Eight women here on the Islands, sir. There's a possibility he may have killed at least 20 more in other places. I want this one locked up so tight he'll never see the light of day again. If the Navy holds him for court martial there won't be any bond and he's eligible for the death penalty that Hawaii doesn't have. I want him locked up in the brig at Pearl Harbor if there's even the slightest possibility he can make bail."

The governor nodded. "Well, let me wish you good luck. How'd you find him so fast?"

"With a lot of help from a very charming Army sergeant with the sweetest drawl this side of the Mason Dixon line, a very brave young woman from Utah, and the techies down in the computer lab, sir. We need to schedule a meeting with a few of those kids when I get back. They'll let you know what we need to bring this Island into the 21st century."

"Is it going to be expensive? Wait, never mind, if you're asking I can about guarantee it is. Have your people call my people when you get back. The dancing is about to start. Go dance with your lady before my wife puts out warrants on both of us."

* * *

Maggie was talking with the governor's wife when he found her. Alicia Jamison was a tall thin blonde, elegantly dressed in the latest designer clothes. "Steve," she said as he approached, "next time don't wait until the last minute to ask a lady to the prom."

"Am I in trouble?" he asked.

"Not yet," she said. She was nearly as tall as he was and had no trouble reaching up to give him a peck on the cheek. "You seem to have done well this time. Don't screw it up. Enjoy the party." She went off to find her husband.

"What did she mean by that?" Maggie wanted to know.

"I think she likes you. Would you care to dance, Sergeant Alden?"

"I would love too, Commander McGarrett." He held her close as the band started into a slow waltz.

"Just once I'd like to put my arms around you without having a weapon in the way. Do you carry that thing all the time?"

"Sorry," he said. "It's part of the job, have to be ready to protect and serve."

"Cocked and locked, eh?"

"That must be an Army thing. Not to worry, the safety's on. No chance of a misfire. Are you having a good time?" he asked.

"I am now. All those political wives were a little overpowering. They all seemed nice enough, though."

"Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" he asked, looking down into those dark green eyes. There was a faint dusting of freckles across her nose. Her perfume was sending signals to his brain that were overriding everything except the urge to hold her tight and never let go.

"What am I ever suppose to do with you?" she asked, a slight flush coloring her face.

"You could keep me."

"You… I… I swear I can't think when you're around. Logic and common sense fly right out the window."

"Sometimes logic and common sense are seriously overrated."

She stepped back from him a bit, looked up into his eyes, their pale blue shading to storm grey. There was something in her clear, even gaze that he couldn't quite read.

"You, Commander, are scaring me. You've managed to awaken feelings I thought I'd left behind years ago."

"No need to be frightened." He said, holding her closer.

"This is happening way too fast!" she whispered against his chest, breathing in the scent of sandalwood and male. "Logic says run away. Everything else says hold tight."

"I like the hold tight part. Let me know when you're ready to go. I've already done my bit for the cause."

"Mrs. Jamison did say you have to be practically drug to one of these things by a team of Clysdales."

"This time I had a little more incentive to show up."

"Really?"

"Yes. You."

"Me?"

"I wanted to see what you looked like out of uniform."

"I'm still in uniform. Remember? I didn't have time to shop for a dress."

Her perfume was doing it again, and the way she felt as he held her. He bent down to whisper in her ear, his lips brushing softly against her skin, his voice husky with emotion. "That wasn't what I meant. Stay with me tonight. Stay with me until I have to fly out of here on Monday."

She didn't answer, just reached up, stroked his cheek, and nodded.

Half an hour later Steve and Maggie said goodbye to the governor. Jamison and his wife watched them as they left.

"What do you think?" she asked her husband.

"I think that he may have finally found the one. Come on, old girl, let's go do some politics."

* * *

Maggie had Steve wait in the car while she went back to her room. She quickly stripped off her uniform, hanging it across the back of the desk chair. She changed into a long rose colored dress made of gauzy cotton and started packing things into an overnight bag.

Lu stuck her head through the door. "Hey, you're home early."

"Not going to be here long. I just needed to pick up a few things." She was blushing furiously. She hadn't expected to run into Lu.

Lu gave her a very wicked and very knowing grin. "You go, girl!" she said, giving Maggie a hug.

"Thanks. I'm going to be gone most of the weekend. I'll call you tomorrow."

She practically skipped down the stairs.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Six

The house was at the end of Kalamanu Drive had been built in the late forties as part of the post war military build up and surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. Steve had bought it in the early eighties, long before the great Hawaiian real estate boom made owning property next to impossible for anyone who wasn't independently wealthy. The place had needed a lot of work and he'd almost declined, until he'd seen the view from the bedroom.

Maggie followed him into the house, every cell in her body alert. _Do I tell him I haven't been with a man since my husband died? I'm going to hyperventilate. Oh, god, what the hell am I thinking?_

"Would you like a drink?" he asked. She shook her head. He could feel the anxiety pouring off her. "This way, I want to show you the view." The open floor plan of the living and dining room faced northeast. He pulled back the drapes and opened the sliding glass doors, letting in the sound of the surf and the soft evening breeze.

She stood there, awestruck, looking out over the Pacific. "This is unbelievable. You didn't tell me you lived by the ocean. Now who's full of surprises?"

He bent down, kissing her deeply. "I think I bought the house for the view, and for the sound of the surf." He kissed her again, hungrily, wanting only to feel her body next to his.

She pulled away. "Slow down," she said _. He's going to see me naked, she thought, and he's going to see what the docs did to me. That is so not going to be good._ "Where's the shower?"

He gave her a puzzled look, well, if that was what she wanted. "In the bedroom," he said, pointing to a door on the opposite wall. "I'll be in the living room when you're done, unless you want some company."

"I'll be fine," she said as she grabbed her overnight bag and retreated into the bathroom. It was a very nice bathroom, with a separate shower and a large Jacuzzi tub. It took all her willpower not to fill the tub with hot water and soak for an hour. Instead, she opted for a quick shower, dabbed on some perfume, brushed her teeth, and slid on a pair of cream silk pajamas.

She'd left her hairbrush in her bag, and her bag was in the living room. So much for hiding out in the bathroom.

He was sitting on the sofa, waiting. One lamp with a dim bulb glowed on a small table at the opposite side of the room. She'd left her glasses in the bathroom and couldn't see his expression. "Find everything?" he asked. Al Stewart's _'Year of the Cat'_ was playing in the background. A bottle of white wine and two glasses were sitting on the coffee table.

"Everything except my hairbrush. That's one of my favorite albums. I had that one on vinyl when I was in high school." She took the brush out of her bag and sat down next to him. He'd taken off his jacket and tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, and for once, there was no shoulder holster in sight. She wondered if he had any idea how damned sexy it made him look. "Could you help me with my hair? Lu's got so many hairpins in there I'll never find them all."

"My pleasure," he said. He gave her the glass of wine and took the brush from her hand. _Had it on vinyl when she was in high school_ , he thought. _When she was in high school I was still in the Navy and wondering what to do with the rest of my life. She's from a different era and a different world and all that matters is she's here with me now._ He began unpinning and unwinding her hair, letting the braids fall down her back. She sipped the wine and began to relax as his long strong fingers loosened the braids, gently massaging her neck as he did. He brushed her hair in long gentle strokes until it cascaded down her back like liquid moonlight.

Al Stewart was singing about time passages. He put down the brush and held her to his chest. He could feel her trembling in his arms as he kissed her. She pulled back a little, looking up into his eyes, her eyes as green as wet leaves. "What's wrong, sweetie?" he asked. "If it's too soon, I'll understand."

'It's not that," she whispered, "it's just that after the doctor's got done I'm not sure if everything still works. There was a lot of damage. Oh, god, that sounds so awful." She felt the blood rushing to her face as she buried it where his neck met his shoulders. "And I haven't… since….." her voice trailed off as she hid her face even further against his neck. "I haven't even wanted to, until I met you."

He stroked her hair as he held her. She was magical, this Little _Menehune_. "Sweetie, is that all? Sssshussh. Everything is going to be fine. Want to know how I know?" She nodded. She felt so damned good snuggled next to him. "This is why." He held his hand, palm down against her chest over her heart. "I can feel your heart beating faster when I touch you. I can feel every breath you take and the warmth of you skin and how good you feel when I hold you close. All I can think about is making love to you. To me you're magic and moonlight and the scent of that perfume that's been driving me insane since the day I met you, my Little _Menehune_."

She looked up at him, tears beginning to well up in her big green eyes. "What am I suppose to do with you?" she asked.

"I told you earlier. You can keep me." He reached up, his big hands cradling her face, and began kissing her very slowly and gently. Soon her trembling stopped, and she found herself kissing him back as his hands slid under her pajama top to find the firm half globes of her breasts, his thumbs softly caressing her nipples until she thought she would explode. Her fingers found the buttons of his shirt and began undoing them. When he reached to unbutton her top, she stopped him.

"Turn the light out, please," she said, pulling him to her, her tongue tracing patterns down his neck that were making it nearly impossible to think clearly. Instead of turning out the light, he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Minutes later her top and his shirt were on the floor. The rest of their clothing followed soon after.

* * *

Later, when time returned and reality emerged from the shadows, they lay entwined, listening to the roar of the ocean.

"Sleepy?" she asked, snuggling closer.

"Nowhere near," he said. He kissed her again. "I think the earth moved about ten minutes ago."

"You sure it wasn't a volcano? That was… intense."

"Want to join me in the Jacuzzi? I'll scrub your back."

"Maybe next time." she said. There was no way she was going to ruin a truly amazing interlude with a horrible dose of reality.

"No." he said.

"What?"

"No," he said, his voice soft and gentle and comforting, "Enough of this nonsense. I know why you wanted the lights off. I didn't have to see the scars to know they're there, I could feel them. I don't care. They're part of you. Maybe not as pretty as these," with that he kissed her breasts, "but they're still a part of you, and since I'm planning on having you around for as long as you're willing to put up with me, sooner or later I'm going to see them. It might as well be now."

She was on the verge of tears, yet she also knew that once he had asked, she would never be able to deny him anything. "Okay," she said softly. He could tell she was frightened. He was getting very good at reading her emotions. "Turn on the light. Only don't say I didn't warn you, it's pretty bad."

She sat up, pulling her long hair over her shoulder, and turned. She was right, it was bad. Not ugly bad, but bad as a reminder of how severely she'd been injured and how much pain she must have endured. Two long scars ran parallel the length of her spine, starting between her shoulder blades and going all the way down. Another long ropy scar began just under her left shoulder blade, looping across her ribs, down to her hip bone and across the pelvic arch. There were two scars between her ribs that could only have come from chest tubes, and another that slanted across her abdomen just under her ribs.

He sat up next to her, sliding his hands around her, burying his face in her neck, drinking in the scent of her flesh and the warmth of her skin, knowing how very close he'd came to never having met her at all.

"You're beautiful," he whispered, "scars and all. The only thing they mean to me is that you survived and you're here with me now." He kissed her at the top of the scar on her spine. "I'm going to soak in the tub for while, join me when you change your mind. I'll be waiting."

He got out of bed and crossed the room. She heard water running in the bathroom. The one thing the BEQ had a horrible shortage of was bathtubs. It had been ages since she'd had a good soak. Or a decent… _get your mind out of the gutter_ , she scolded herself. She was pretty sure her bones had solidified once more. She got up slowly, twisting her hair up on top of her head, feeling the warm sticky wetness slide down her thigh as she did. _Yes_ , she thought, _bath._

"I knew you would change your mind," he said, as she slid into the tub next to him. "Get over here."

"You are very difficult man to ignore. And way to sure of yourself." She kissed him, brushing the hair back from his forehead. "I didn't want you to see how bad the damage was. Most men want fantasy. You see all these perfect models with their perfect bodies on the magazine covers and then you look in the mirror and know it's never going to be you. I didn't want to risk running you away with an ugly dose of reality."

"I'm not most men," he said, "and I don't want fantasy, I want you, and I'm not going anywhere." He kissed her back. "Are you ready to tell me what happened?"

"There really isn't that much to tell," she said, getting that odd far away look in her eyes that he didn't like in the least. He'd seen enough of the 'thousand yard stare' after Vietnam to last a lifetime. Seeing it on a male veteran was bad enough, seeing it on Maggie was heart wrenchingly painful.

"I know part of it already. All you have to do is fill in the gaps."

"Really? Have you been talking to Lu?"

"No, this is where I confess to being so intrigued by a pair of big green eyes that I put in a call to the military personnel center."

"You pulled my 201? Why?"

"Because you, my Little _Menehune_ , are a beautiful enigma wrapped up in an Army uniform. I haven't been able to get you off my mind since the minute I met you. You were reluctant to talk and I wanted to know why."

"Do you do that for every woman you meet?"

"Only the ones with the big green eyes and the sexy southern drawls."

"You have to hold me while I tell you this. I still get shaky even thinking about it."

He held her closer, her head resting on his shoulder. "Better?"

"Much. Here goes. One time only. I don't like thinking about this, much less talking about it. And you know it's real because it's not prefaced by the usual 'no shit I was there' caveat." He could feel her body tensing and her drawl getting thicker as she spoke. "It was mid-January. The official reports have it as the eighteenth, only I couldn't swear to that, since there's still a lot of stuff I can't and really don't want to remember. The ground war hadn't even started. We were still busy bombing Iraq back into the Stone Age, which we could have done in an afternoon with plenty of time left over for a round of golf. I was with a convoy of relief supplies for a refugee camp outside of the King Khalid military center. I was there to interview the camp director, do one of those 'oh look the Americans aren't that bad' stories. Six vehicles, two HumVee's mounted with 50 cals, one at each end of the convoy and four deuce and half's, one carrying troops, the other three loaded with food and medical supplies in the middle. I was riding in the back seat of the first hummer, armed with a camera, a notepad, and a sixteen with a M203 mounted underneath. We're about forty miles out in some serious desert. It's hotter than hell's half acre and nothing around except sand dunes and rocks and wadi's and this prickly scrub brush pretending to be trees and it's suppose to be a 'friendly' zone." She paused a minute. He could feel her shaking.

Steve pulled her closer. If he'd learned anything from the military it was that 'friendly' had a very flexible meaning in a combat zone. "Then what happened?" he asked, gently, his voice taking on a soothing tone.

"Hidden up on one of the dunes, dug in between the rocks and scrub like a bunch of cockroaches, were four Iraqis with a mortar and a machine gun. The mortars were bastardized Russian ordnance left over from their little incursion into Afghanistan and sold by the Pakistani's. Nasty pieces of work. The machine gun was a stolen American made M-60. Their favorite tactic was to take out the first and last vehicle in the convoy, especially since those were the ones carrying the heavy machine guns, and open fire on everything trapped in between."

"That was also a favorite tactic of the VC. I don't think it's changed in the last millennium."

"Well, it still works. And this is where everything gets sketchy. The hummer took a horizontal hit from the mortar to the engine compartment, which is probably why I'm still alive today. If they'd done their usual and dropped it through the roof, it'd have been over. The vehicle flips, and I end up face down in the sand with the hummer on top of me." She shivered a little as she tightened her arms around him. It felt so damned good to just be near him, to feel his body next to hers. "Could you add some more hot water, please? I'm freezing."

He knew it wasn't the water that was making her shiver, but he ran more hot water into the tub and turned on the jets. She lay back against him, eyes closed. He gently kissed the scar over her right eyebrow. When she spoke, her voice was hardly louder than a whisper.

"Then all hell broke loose. Mostly I remember flashes of light, and noise. Lots of noise, gunfire, explosions, screaming, some of which was probably mine. And pain. I didn't know you could hurt that much and still live. My ears were ringing from the explosions, my head was hurting from impacting the sand, blood was running into my eyes, and there are no words to describe just how much pain you're in from major spine injuries. But I still had my weapon. The strap had held when I went flying out of the hummer. How I don't know. Had my weapon, but had lost my glasses and I can't see worth a damn without them."

"Most of this is pieced together from stories told by other people. I remember bits and pieces. The only reason I know for sure that I did it, was because I had the only grenade launcher on the convoy, and that's an oversight the army won't be making again." She paused for a minute, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. "Somehow, I managed to get my sixteen into a firing position and get the grenades out of the ammo pouch and load the 203. I'm told that I fired two grenades in the general direction of the mortar fire and scored a direct hit with both of them. To this day I couldn't tell you how I managed. There was one hella explosion because the second one hit their ammo cache and then everything got really quiet. The next thing I remembered was waking up on a medevac plane to Germany. I was in and out of consciousness for the next month. I had a concussion, a ruptured spleen, six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a fractured pelvis, and one very messed up spine. The first thing they did was take out my spleen to stop the internal bleeding and stabilized the spinal injuries enough to get me to Walter Reed without any more damage. They had me on some serious pain meds the entire trip across the pond. When I finally did wake up my spine had been wired back together and I was in the rehab ward."

He could hear the pain in her voice and knew what was coming next. "Hold me tighter, please. This is where it gets bad." He did, wishing there was a way he could take away the pain. "While I'm being medevaced stateside, Michael's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. It was an AWAC's plane on an intelligence gathering mission. There were sixteen people on board. None of them survived. I didn't know until over a month later when the doc's started weaning me off the pain meds and finally decided I was strong enough to handle the news. I knew something was wrong the minute Michael's father came into my room. When you're hurt that badly things get filtered down through layers until you're strong enough to know what's going on. Misguided kindness, I suppose. Maybe they were afraid if they'd told me the truth sooner, I'd have lost the will to live and just given up." She reached up to run her fingers from his jaw to the cleft in his chin. "Took me a while to figure out why I survived. Now I think I'm starting to understand."

When he kissed her he could taste the salt of her tears. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Warmer, at least. Did you mean it when you said you were planning on having me around for as long as I was willing to put up with you?"

He got out of tub, wrapped a towel around his waist, and held another out for her. She stepped out of the tub and into his arms

"Every last word. Let's get you back to bed," he said, once more picking her up as if she were weightless.

"I'm not sleepy."

"Who said anything about sleeping?" he said as he carried her to the bed.

* * *

After over eighteen years in the Army, Maggie's internal alarm clock was permanently set at 0430. This morning was no different, except she wasn't in her room at the BEQ. She sat up, heart pounding, on the verge of panic.

"Easy, baby, easy," Steve said as he gathered her into his arms. "I'm here. You're safe." Her breath slowed, then her heart rate. She collapsed against him, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I forgot where I was."

"Does this happen very often?"

She sighed. "More than it should. The Igor's promised it would go away. It hasn't."

"Igor's?"

"It's sort of an orthopedic ward code name for doctors. You'd have to be a Terry Pratchett fan to appreciate it."

"Literate as well as pretty. I have found a treasure."

"I didn't mean to wake you so early."

"You didn't. I've been watching you sleep for the past half hour or so. Time to get up, there's something I want to show you."

* * *

They navigated the narrow crooked path down the incline that led to the beach in the halflight of early dawn. He was wearing workout pants and a tee shirt. She had on her pajama bottoms and the shirt he had worn the night before. A soft ocean breeze was ruffling her hair about her face. The tide was coming in. He spread a blanket on the sand just above the waterline facing east.

He held her as the sun started its climb above the horizon. The dawn colors of the sky were magnificent, the water blue and green and clear. He heard her breath catch and looked down to see the tears streaming down her face.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" He held her tighter.

"It's so beautiful," she whispered.

That was the moment he knew.

* * *

Later, she was sitting on the lanai, basking in the morning sun. Steve came out, carrying a try with coffee, tea, croissants and fresh pineapple. He passed her a mug, the scent of chamomile wafting through the morning air.

She gave him a quizzical look. "Chamomile tea? I can't see you having a stash of chamomile just lying around."

"I had the housekeeper pick some up."

"Convinced I was a sure thing?"

"No, I was just very, very hopeful."

She put down her mug. "You," she started. "Damnit! I still can't think straight when you're around. What am I suppose to do with you?"

He gave her a wicked grin. "I can think of a few things we didn't do last night." He could see her blushing, which he thought was adorable. "Or you could just keep me."

"I'll have to think about that one for a while," she said. She went to stand behind his chair, her fingers kneading the tension from his neck and shoulders. "What, no shoulder holster this morning?"

He pulled her into his lap. "Want to go sightseeing today? I'll show you the places tourists don't get to see."

"Yes. That sounds wonderful. Only let's take my car. It's a rag top day if there ever was one. Lu knows where I keep my spare keys. She can bring it over and we can drop her off on our way out."

"Think she can find this place?"

"Last house on Kalamanu Drive. If you miss it you end up in the ocean. I think she'll be able to find it, no trouble." She kissed him and got up to go find her phone.

Steve's phone rang. He checked the caller ID and reminded himself he still needed to talk to Dan Williams about his timing skills.

"What?" he said. "And this had better be damned important."

"I've got a pile of travel documents and a bunch of other stuff you have to sign to make this work, plus an update from Kono and Che. Are you home? I can be there in ten minutes.

"For now. Front doors unlocked. We'll be on the lanai."

"See you in ten." Danny hung up. We? He grinned. The morning just got a lot more interesting.

Maggie had changed into white shorts and pale lavender camp shirt. She kissed him before sitting down and pouring another cup of tea. He could tell she was starting to relax a little more. That made him inexplicably happy. He wanted her to feel comfortable in his house.

"She'll be here in about half an hour. She said with the Twins out of town last night was unreasonably quiet."

"Those two must be a handful. I think Compton has a crush on Ivory."

"You noticed that, too? Poor boy. He has no idea what he's getting himself into."

"It's the uniform. A man sees a beautiful woman in uniform, and all he can think about doing is getting her out of it."

"So, that was the plan all along," she said, smiling.

"Not exactly, it just happened that way." The doorbell rang. "That'll be Danno. He always rings the bell first, even when the door is unlocked and I know who it is."

Maggie's face paled. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this. Lu was one thing; Dan Williams and the rest of the Five-O crew was another entirely.

"He's going to find out eventually, sweetie, it might as well be now." Steve said, reaching across the table and taking her hand.

"Morning, Steve," Danny said, grinning. It looked like the boss had scored major last night. "Nice to see you again, Sgt Alden."

"I think it's about time you started calling me Maggie," she said.

"Want some coffee?" Steve asked, giving Danny a look that said don't even think about it.

"Sure," He opened his briefcase, dropped a stack of papers on the table and handed Steve a pen. "You need to sign and initial about a dozen of these where the little stickers are. Those are for the arrest and search warrants." Steve signed them and passed them back to Danny, who handed him a second set of papers. "Sign and initial these, those are for the extradition warrant."

"How many more of these do I need to sign?" he asked, handing the papers back to Danny.

"We're just getting started." He took out another set of papers. "These are from the Navy. I think everything is in triplicate. Sign and initial where indicated." Steve did, Danny took out another set of papers. "These are the last ones. They're travel and expense vouchers and authorization to fly with firearms. The AG said the next time we need to carry outside the US please do him a favor and shoot him first. Apparently there was a lot of red tape and a couple of embassies involved. We couldn't get a commercial flight that would get there before the _Edmonds_. We're on a Navy transport, flies out of here at 0315 Monday morning. At least it's a 141 instead of a C-130. I don't think I could take 20 hours worth of prop wash."

"Steve," Maggie asked, frowning slightly, "is this about you flying out to Singapore? What's the Navy got to do with this? Oh, god, he's in the Navy, isn't he? The killer? And y'all are going to Singapore to get him off one of our ships." Her drawl always got thicker when she was excited or upset.

Both men looked at each other. There was nothing about this small silver haired women that said 'reporter.' Sitting in the sunshine, dressed for the warm Hawaiian weather, she looked more like a teacher on summer break than either a soldier or a journalist. If she ever went to work for a civilian paper, she'd be hell on wheels.

"Yes." Steve said evenly. "Its okay, Danno. She's agreed not to print anything until our suspect has been arrested and is back here. Then we give the Stars and Stripes an exclusive. If it wasn't for Maggie and the rest of those women at Ft Shafter we'd still be chasing shadows. If anyone's earned the right to an exclusive, she has."

"That true?" Danny asked, looking directly at Maggie. He was going to have to have a long talk with his boss about female reporters.

Maggie looked straight back at him. "I want that monster in jail for what he did to Tami. If it means sitting on the story for the next six damn months I'll do it."

Danny nodded. He'd known from the start that those women soldiers would do whatever it took to keep their sisters safe. "Thank you. Then I guess I can let you in on the rest of it. Kono found the vehicle last night. That crazy Hawaiian practically kicked down the gate to the biggest motorpool on Pearl to get to it and get it impounded. Che and NCIS have been going over it since daybreak. They found four strands of dark brown hair, with roots still attached, on the passenger side. Che's 99% sure they belong to the Wilson girl but is waiting on DNA confirmation. Almost forgot these," he took more papers out of the briefcase and handed them to Steve. "Congratulations, as of 1200 hours today you belong to the Navy, Commander."

Danny poured another cup of coffee and helped himself to a croissant, feeling insufferably pleased with himself.

The doorbell rang. "That'll be Lu," Maggie said, "I'll get it." Steve watched her as she crossed the lanai admiring her shapely rear and her strong, tanned legs until she disappeared into the house.

Danny gave a silent whistle and looked over at Steve. "That's some woman. I can't believe you're unarmed."

Steve lifted a napkin from the table, exposing his holstered weapon. "You know me better than that."

"Does she know how many people have tried to kill you here?"

"No, and I'm not telling her until I have to. By the way, Danno, you know I trust you with my life and in some ways think of you as my little brother."

"Uh, yes," he said, wondering where this was going.

"But, and let me make this perfectly clear, unless it pertains directly to this case, or some misguided fool tries to bomb Pearl Harbor again, or blow up the Governor's Palace, or Pele herself shows up and wants to have a chat, if you call me one more time this weekend, I will shoot you."

Danny tried not smile. "You got it. I'll let the rest of the crew know. She seems to be doing you a world of good. I haven't seen you looking this content in years."

The conversation ended as Maggie and Lu came back out on the lanai. Lu was wearing a pair of shorts that showed a whole lot of leg and a tee shirt that read " _Reforger '90. We're only here for the beer_."

"What's up, kids?" Lu asked.

"What's a Reforger?" Danny wanted to know, hoping that Lu didn't think he was ogling her generous chest area.

"The Reforger that wasn't," Lu said, getting that strange unfocused look that Danny had seen on combat veterans before and did not like in the least. "Return of Forces, Europe. It's a huge field training exercise, mostly to see how fast we can move equipment and ground troops across the ocean."

"Yeah," Maggie said. Steve did not like the blank far away stare either of them had in their eyes. What had the war done to these women? "Amazing how the Prez declares war just as everyone was packing up for the party."

"That's why it's the Reforger that wasn't," Lu explained. "Instead of going to Europe, everyone ended up in the desert." She did not like the way this conversation was going. It was too nice of a day for Desert Storm bullshit. She quickly changed the subject. "Heard you're going sightseeing? I brought your camera so you can take lots of pictures."

"That's the plan," said Maggie. "It seems I've got my very own tour guide. Got any suggestions as to where?"

Danny thought for a minute. "Don't know about the rest of you, but, beautiful day like this, pretty girl, ragtop with a screaming engine, there's only one place."

Steve and Danny got there at the same instant. "Pali Highway!"

Why is it, Steve thought as he was packing Sunday night, that time seems to speed up when you all you want to do is slow it down? Maggie was sitting cross legged on the bed, watching him pack. He wondered if she knew that he was missing her already.

"How long are y'all going to be gone?" she asked. She was once again wearing one of his shirts, probably because neither of them was sure where her clothes had ended up. He was in pajama bottoms and a tee shirt. _Do all men over fifty look this good,_ she wondered _. He's still got all his hair and none of it grey._

"I'm hoping to be back by Friday, sooner, if at all possible, depending on what we find and how quickly we can get transport out of Singapore." He took his Navy officers cap off the closet self and put it on her head. "Looks better on you than it ever did on me. Hold still a minute." He snapped a picture with his phone of her sitting on his bed, wearing his shirt unbuttoned enough to show the rise of her breasts, his cap perched crookedly on top her head, long silver hair spilling down past her waist.

She took off the hat, handing it back to him. "It doesn't go with my uniform," she said, giving him a small sad smile. "You're going to need it for yours."

"Not as much as I need you." He dropped the hat on the dresser, zipped the suitcase closed and put it on the floor. He checked his watch. 2230 hours. They had time. She'd already agreed to drive him to the airport. He sat next to her on the bed, unbuttoning the shirt, and cupping her breasts in his hands. "You still have to tell me the story about the tattoo." He pushed her hair back to kiss her neck; his lips moving slowly downward to gently kiss her breasts. He heard the sharp intake of her breath. His hands slid under the fabric to hold her closer. She pushed him away.

"When you get back. Lie down, Big Guy," she said. "Time for me to show you how much I'm going to miss you." As he lay back, feeling her lips gently caressing his skin, his last semi coherent thought was; _it's a long flight, I can sleep on the plane._


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER SEVEN

Steve pulled into the parking lot at the Hickam Passenger Terminal. At that hour, it was nearly deserted.

"Looks like Danny's running late," Maggie said, leaning over the console. Bucket seats were fine for driving but had way too many drawbacks in the romance department.

"He'll be here." Steve said, opening the door and unfolding out of the Mustang. Fun car, just not a lot of leg room. Maggie got out, stretching. He picked her up and sat her down on the hood. "There, now I don't have to bend down." She gave him the tiny half smile that he now knew meant she was thinking naughty thoughts. She hiked up her skirt and wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him close.

"We're going to have to try this somewhere less public. I'm going to miss you, Big Guy." Headlights splashed across the pavement. Neither of them seemed to notice.

Kono had driven Danny to Hickam. "Don't see the boss's car," he said.

"Oh, he's here alright. Pull up next to that 'Stang."

"We gone interrupt some sailor saying goodbye to his girl."

"He'll just have to get over it."

Kono parked the black sedan next to the little convertible. His face broke into a huge grin when he saw who he was interrupting. "Looks like the Big Man got lucky this weekend, for sure! Hey, dat's that Little _Menehune_!"

"So it is, Kono, so it is." Danny got out, stretching, wondering if there was coffee in the terminal. It was way too damned early, but not too early to harass the boss.

"Morning, Steve, Maggie," he said, yawning. "Hey, did you hear about what happened with that motorcycle cop up on the Pali?"

Steve frowned. Cops gossiped like fishwives. "No, Danno," he said innocently. "What happened?"

"Motor cop's out on the Pali, right, just past the tunnels where those big hairpin turns are, hiding in the bushes with a radar gun when this yellow mustang with… hey, Kono, where'd they say the plates were from?"

Kono looked around the fender of the 'Stang. "North Carolina."

"Yeah, North Carolina plates and stickers from Fort Bragg blew past him doing 105. Just knew he had one of those Danger Ranger's new to the Islands. Only when the car pulls over, it comes back registered to a chick, and since there's a dude driving it, he's thinking, stolen car, especially since it only looks like there's one person in the car, cause the passenger's so short, you can't see the top of her head over the headrest." Danny paused for effect. "Can you imagine the look on that poor cop's face when the driver flashes a badge and tells this kid he's a police officer and he's armed?"

"Especially when he saw the name on the ID," Kono said. "I think he's taking a stress day."

Steve had enough tact to look mildly embarrassed. "Okay, boys, you've had enough fun for one day. We've got a plane to catch."

Maggie walked with him to the terminal doors. Damn, she thought, he looks way too good in that uniform. She wasn't familiar with Navy insignia had no idea what most of the ribbons and badges pinned on it meant, the only thing she could even equate to army rank were the silver oak leaves on the collar. He bent down to kiss her goodbye. "I'll call you when I get to Singapore. What are you going to do this week?"

"I'm going to miss you and I'm going to the DMV to get my car properly registered in Hawaii. Be safe." She took a paperback book with a picture of a dragon on the cover out of her bag and gave it to him. "Here's something to read when you get tired of police reports. It's about coppers and million to one chances." She kissed him again. "See you when you get back."

Danny gave her a brief hug.

"You bring that man back to me," she said.

Danny smiled. That woman was the best thing that had happened to his boss in years. "You got it," he said.

Kono walked back to the car with her. He could see she was upset. "You okay?" he asked.

She looked up at the big Hawaiian. "I really and truly hate military aircraft of any kind. I'm going to be a wreck until I know he's back on the ground."

"The Navy got good planes," Kono said. He looked down at the little army sergeant. It was more than clear she cared about the Big Man. "Hey, you wanna go get some breakfast?" he asked.

She was feeling a little hungry and knew she could do with a cup of tea. "As a matter of fact, yes. I know this little place called Maholo's."

"One of my favorites. I'll follow you over, if you don't mind. Don't think I want to try to fit into that little car."

"Sounds like a plan to me, and, Kono, thank you."

"No problem. You just take care of the Big Man."

"I think I can handle that. Let's go, I'm starving!"

* * *

Danny took one look at the inside of the C-141 and had the urge to head back down the ramp. The only good thing about the trip so far was how much he was enjoying Steve's obvious discomfort at having to return a salute every ten minutes or so. The back of the plane was shoved full of cargo. There were folded up jump seats on both sides of the fuselage, easily accessible by climbing over canvas wrapped bundles and netted boxes. He was he only civilian on board and he was starting to feel like the odd man out.

"What do we do?" he asked Steve. "Strap ourselves in and hope we don't die?"

"You ever hear the phrase 'rank has its privilege?' We're in the front of the plane."

He was skeptical, but followed anyway. Steve handed a young blonde woman in a flight suit a copy of their travel orders. The kid looked them over, saluted, and ushered them through the door into a compartment that was downright luxury compared to the back of the plane.

"Not bad," Danny said, as they settled in, Steve claiming the window seat and Danny opting for the aisle, leaving the middle seat empty. The seats had high backs and were wider than most coach seats on commercial airliners. "Do we get coffee?"

"As soon as this thing gets airborne." He took out his phone, saw he still had a signal, and hit the number he'd recently added to speed dial.

"How's my girl?" he asked when Maggie answered.

"Having breakfast with Kono at Maholo's. I thought y'all would be airborne by now."

"Tell that big Hawaiian no trying to move in while I'm away. We just boarded the plane and getting ready for take-off. I wanted to call before I have to shut the phone off."

"I'm glad you did. Call me when you land. Please?"

"As soon as I get there. I'll bring you a souvenir from Singapore. What do you want?'

"You back in one piece with that lowlife scum who's been killing women. But mostly I just want you back."

"I think I can do that. Listen, sweetie, it's time to shut off the phones and get this crate airborne. I love you." He ended the call as the plane started to vibrate as the four huge jet engines fired up and it began its long slow taxi to the runway.

Danny pretended he hadn't heard the last part of the conversation.

Kono looked across the table. Maggie had the oddest expression on her face. Then she smiled. "Good news from the Big Man?" he asked.

"The best ever," she said.

* * *

Maggie got back to her room at the BEQ with more than enough time to make it to the five o'clock PT formation. As she dropped her overnight bag on the bed she saw the newspaper, with a note from Lu taped to the page. "Congratulations" it read "you're famous. Hardin is so pissed!"

It was the Sunday society pages from the Honolulu Courier. There on the front page was a picture of Maggie and Steve, obviously snapped Friday night at the Capitol Building. Not a bad picture, either, she thought. In it he was holding her arm and looking down at her and she was smiling up at him, eyes wide from the flash photography, and looking slightly bemused. Oh, gods, she thought, he's a foot taller than I am and I look like I belong in the Girl Scouts instead of the Army, and if I ever find out who wrote that caption I'm going to break all his pencils. Somebody needs to tell that idiot the WAC's disbanded in the seventies.

Lu must have heard her come in. "Hey, girl, how was your weekend?" Lu was smirking. Lu had a championship smirk. She would have won gold if there was a smirk Olympics.

"Just fine, thank you. What's with the paper?"

"You made the big time, kiddo. Did you see the caption?"

"Yeah. 'One of Hawaii's most eligible bachelors accompanied by a mysterious member of the WAC's.' I swear I didn't know newspapers did this crap anymore. When the hell did I become 'mysterious'? I mean, hells bells, we were announced at the door and I was wearing a name tag!" She had pulled on her PT uniform and was braiding and coiling her hair at the back of her head. "Why's Hardin pissed? It's not like I did this on purpose."

"He's pissed because when you first got here he put the moves on you and you shot his scrawny ass down in flames because you saw right through his bullshit, and now he's jealous because another man's getting something he can't get near. He's also pissed because you got an invitation to a party at the Governor's from a man he can't bully or push around like he does some of our younger troops, but if you get down to the real reason I think he's pissed because Steve McGarrett is more of a man than he'll ever be and he knows it. You're going to have to watch your back around that jerk from now on. He's going to do his best to make your life miserable."

Maggie smiled. "You know, I'm not really that worried. Lu, after this week, you and I are gonna be golden." She gave Lu a very abbreviated account of Five-O's actions. "They got him. They got the monster that killed Tami. And we did it. You and me and the Twins. We gave them the pieces of the puzzle they were missing. We get an exclusive as soon as they're back in Hawaii."

Lu was grinning ear to ear. "That's the best news I've heard in ages. When do we go see the Old Man with this?"

"As soon as morning formation is over. Come on, girlfriend. For some reason I've got more energy this morning than I know what to do with. Let's go do some PT!"

* * *

As it was, the CO was out of this office most of the morning and they didn't get to see him until after lunch. They spent most of the morning attending to routine business and avoiding the First Sergeant, who thankfully, seemed to have disappeared for the day. Maggie and Lu reported to Colonel Dale after they returned from lunch. The CO listened, nodded, and gave them the go ahead to start what would be a feature article. He was also extremely pleased that the man who had murdered PFC Wilson was being brought to justice.

"When did you say they'd have this monster back in Hawaii?" he asked.

"Not sure, sir," Maggie replied. "His ship doesn't pull into Singapore until Wednesday. They've got arrest, search, and extradition warrants. It's going to be done jointly with Five-O and the Navy. I don't know all the details and won't until they're all back in Honolulu."

"You ladies did a good job. It will be very gratifying to call that child's parents and let them know when the fiend who killed their daughter is in jail. Sgt Yablanski, you're dismissed, I need a few words in private with Sgt Alden."

"Yes, sir," Lu saluted and left.

"I'm guessing this is about the picture in the Honolulu Courier's society pages." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Among other things, yes. First Sergeant Hardin thinks you were out of bounds by wearing that uniform for what he called a date. Hold on, I didn't say I agreed with him."

"If I were male, would we be having this same conversation?"

"No, because if you were I doubt Commander McGarrett would have asked you to a party at the Capitol Building. You were appropriately dressed for the occasion, and comported yourself in a manner befitting a member of the senior enlisted ranks. I know this because the governor's office called the post commander earlier this morning to let us know how much they enjoyed your visit and to apologize for the article in the Courier. Don't blush. You seem to have made quite an impression on both the governor and his wife, and you got the Army and Ft Shafter a load of brownie points with the politicians. I also know you have no control over anything printed in a newspaper I wouldn't use for paper training an incontinent Jack Russell. There is one thing, and only one thing, that I have to agree with Sgt Hardin on. You were gone all weekend and as far as any of us knew there was no way to contact you in the event of an emergency. We need the number to your cell phone."

"Lu knew how to contact me, but if that's what it takes to get him off my back, fine." She wrote the number down on the note pad the Colonel had passed across his desk. "Please let him know that my phone keeps track of incoming calls and if starts calling me every five minutes I'm charging him with harassment."

"I don't think it will come to that. Contrary to popular belief, he's not stupid."

"No, he's just a major jerk who's got it in for every female that ever lived. He thinks we're good for one thing and one thing only, and when he doesn't get it, he does his best to make our lives miserable. He's smart enough not to do or say anything where there are witnesses and always manages to turn the complaints back around on the person making them. He's a horrible human being who should just retire already."

"He can't retire. Most of his paycheck goes to pay child support and alimony to his assorted ex wives. We're stuck with him. I do have one question for you though."

"What's that, sir?"

"Did you have a nice weekend?" he asked, smiling.

She smiled back. "Extremely."

"Good for you. Is this getting serious?"

"Don't know yet, sir. I'm beginning to think I'd really like it to be."

"I've been here longer than you have. He's got a very good reputation. If he makes you happy, I say go for it."

"Thank you, sir," she said.

"Now get out of here and start writing. Dismissed."

Maggie saluted and left.

* * *

Danny had decided flying Navy wasn't that bad after all. The coffee was good and breakfast had been hot and better tasting than he had expected. Now he and Steve were going through their paperwork.

"Here's what I've got on the two women sailors. The one from the _North Star_ was IC3 Roberta Marie Paxton, white female, age 23. She had been accused of being a lesbian by a shipmate, survived the hearing, but went over the side sometime after midnight in the waters of the Pacific off the coast of Washington State. In February. Without cold water survival gear she didn't have a chance. She didn't show up for watch the next day, she wasn't in her berthing area or anywhere else. Ship went to general quarters and she was still a no show. A search of the ship turned up her clothes on the weather deck. According to the women in berthing, she was engaged to be married and looking forward to finishing her tour with the Navy."

"Was the fiancé on the same ship?"

Danny shuffled his papers. "No. He was a kid she'd went to high school with. Went home on leave and got engaged."

"The _North Star_ was famous for a huge lesbian witch hunt. Twenty-three out of sixty one women were accused. Two were discharged from the Navy, the rest finished their tour. It was a nasty chapter in Navy history that I hope will never be repeated." Steve was convinced that Annapolis should have an entire semester dedicated to the debacle on the _North Star_ entitled "Don't Do This, Ever."

"You're gonna love this part. Two weeks before she went over the side, she accused another sailor of sexual harassment. According to her, he didn't want to take no for an answer and got a little grabby. Three guesses as to his name."

"Don't need three. Donald Wayne Waldrop."

"Yep. He got a letter of reprimand. He should have been sent up for attempted rape."

There were times when Steve wondered what in the hell had happened to the Navy. This was one of them. "The captain has the last say as to what happens on his ship. In this case he was wrong. Take consolation in the fact that he was relieved of duty after Paxton went overboard. What about the sailor from the _Andromeda_?"

"Jennifer Lynn Weeks, black female, age 19. She was a cook. She went overboard two days out of the Philippines on the way to the Persian Gulf War. Same drill. Didn't show up for work, ship went to general quarters, clothes found neatly folded on the weather decks. She had a four year old son back home. Had the kid when she was fifteen, managed to finish high school, joined the Navy for an opportunity for a better life for her and her kid. According to the women in her berthing area she was excited about seeing every foreign port she could and other than missing her kid was fairly happy. She was smart, easy going, funny, and was taking every college course available. Not what I'd call suicidal."

"I don't suppose there were any harassment complaints associated with her?"

"None that we've managed to find so far, but I've got two here from the _Andromeda_ for none other than Chief Petty Officer Donald Wayne Waldrop. Both were dismissed for insufficient evidence. Apparently if you were on the _Andromeda_ and someone tried to rape you, you needed witnesses."

"There's a kid growing up without a mother because of this creep. The more I read the reports, the more I'm convinced he raped and killed those women and then threw them overboard to cover up his crime. That's murder on the high seas. I hope they hang the bastard."

"The Navy still hangs people?" Danny asked. He hadn't seen Steve this angry in a long time.

"I think it's the needle these days," Steve said. "I don't suppose you've got any aspirin in there? I'm getting one hell of a headache."

"Got some Tylenol. Will that work?"

"Right now I'd about swallow morphine." Danny handed him the pills, which he washed down with a gulp of lukewarm coffee. "Anything else on Waldrop that looks interesting?"

"After the _Andromeda_ he was at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Three women in the area turn up dead in the same way, stripped naked on the beach, laid out in a cruciform fashion, clothes neatly folded above the waterline. No ID, underwear, or jewelry on any of them. Not really women, teenage girls, actually, the oldest was nineteen. They were all runaways snatched out of Seattle. One of them is still unidentified. Maybe we'll be able to give a family an answer as to what happened to their daughter."

"This keeps getting worse. He's been at this since the 80's. He's gotten good at what he does; he likes doing it, and thinks he's untouchable. Not any more. I don't even want to think about how many bodies there are out there that we've missed."

"Maybe he'll feel like confessing. I've been reading up on these serial killer types. Sometimes when they get caught they want to brag about what they've done."

"I'm not a priest, Danno. I don't want to hear a damned thing this monster has to say. I want hard evidence tying him to every body we've got on that list, especially those three service women. Those women didn't enlist to be murdered."

"I think we're going to find it, Steve. He takes trophies. Chances are he's got them stashed where he can look at them. I'm betting he's got some sort of trunk or locker stashed somewhere on the _Edmonds_. All we have to do is find it."

"I don't care if we have to hoist that ship out of the water and shake it; we're going to find his stash." He remembered something Maggie had said. ' _Their parents send them to us young and healthy and we send them back in boxes.'_ The women on the _North Star_ and the _Andromeda_ didn't even get that. "We owe it to every woman who's ever worn a uniform to get this creep."

"That little sergeant's really got you thinking, hasn't she?" Danny asked.

Steve was silent for a minute. "Yes, she has. About a lot of things."

"That first day we met her, she had all these ribbons on. I could have sworn one of them was a Purple Heart."

"A Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with V for Valor on it. She earned them both in the Gulf War, and nearly died in the process. Now she wakes up in the middle of the night terrified because she thinks she's back in the desert. Loud noise startles her and she's in more pain than she will admit to. She's got me thinking about a lot of things, one of them being she's one very special lady."

"Does she make you happy?" Danny asked. Maybe Kono was right and that little woman with the moonlight hair was magic.

"Very." He stretched and reclined the seat. "This thing lands in Guam to refuel in about six hours. Wake me before we land."

"Didn't get much sleep last night?" Danny asked, wide eyed with innocence.

"Go annoy the Airedales. I'm taking a nap." He closed his eyes and was asleep in minutes.

* * *

Danny reclined his seat and tried to sleep, only to find that he was wide awake. He tried rereading the case files, then the paperback he'd brought along. _Too much_ _coffee_ , he thought, _can't focus_. He stretched, trying to unknot the tension in his muscles. No one had told him to stay in his seat or the passenger cabin. It was as good a time as any to explore the plane and maybe find out exactly what the heck an Airedale was.

He strolled back to the cargo hold, following the sound of feminine laughter to the back of the plane. Five crew members, two female and three male, all dressed in flight suits, were sitting around a canvas covered crate playing cards. "Uno!" shouted a woman with dark red hair pulled back into a tight bun. She looked to be in her late twenties and appeared to be in charge of the group.

"Hey," she said, catching sight of Danny, "You're one of the VIP's. What you doing back here with us heathens?"

"Needed to stretch my legs," he said. The redhead had dimples, russet colored eyes, a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and a southern drawl that rivaled Maggie's. He found himself hoping she was going all the way to Singapore.

"You know how to play Uno? Have a seat, we'll deal you in." She reached into a cooler behind her and handed him an ice cold Coke. "It's not every day we get civilians on board. I'm Beverly, the other female is Claudia, and the boys are Larry, Paul, and Hank."

"Thanks," he said, taking a seat on a roll of canvas. "Dan Williams from Five-O. Guess I'm not up on Navy terminology. What the heck is an Airedale?"

The one called Claudia giggled. "That's us. The air department. Bev's in charge. She's been in like forever!"

"Children, please," Beverley said. "Don't harass the civilian. Any member of the air support crew is called an Airedale. I have no idea why. It started back on the carriers during World War Two and stuck."

Beverly dealt the cards. Danny looked down at his hand. He had a feeling he was about to get creamed by an expert. Beverley threw down a red 8 and the game got started.

"This isn't a bad run," said the one called Larry. "Better than being on a ship."

"Yeah," said Claudia, "Draw two, Mr. Williams. I thought I was going to be on a ship but lucked out and got aircrew instead. We're all cargo handler's and Bev's a loadmaster. She's the only one been on a ship."

With that the four of them started singing the theme to " _The Love Boat_ ".

"All of you can just shut the fuck up!" Beverley shouted, her face flaming nearly as red as her hair. "I wasn't one of them! I swear for god I will never live down being on that damned ship."

"What ship was that?" Danny asked.

"You mean you don't know about _The Love Boat_?" Claudia was a native Californian with blonde hair, big blue eyes and a bad case of the giggles. "Bev here was on the _Andromeda_ during the Gulf War. Half the women on board came back knocked up!"

"It wasn't half, you twit! It was only about ten percent and I sure as hell wasn't one of them. I swear I'm leaving your ass on Guam for the snakes to eat."

Danny dropped his cards. "You were on the _Andromeda_ during the War? Holy crap!" he stood up. "Come with me. I know someone who's going to want a word with you." Kono was right, that Little _Menehune_ was good luck.

* * *

"Steve," Danny said, "Hey, wake up. You got to hear this."

Steve opened one eye. "If we're not landing on Guam I'm going to shoot you."

"Better than that. I want you to meet Petty Officer Beverley Patterson. She was on the _Andromeda_ during the Gulf War."

He sat up, instantly awake. Danny handed him a bottle of cold orange juice.

"I thought you'd be interested. Petty Officer Patterson, this is Commander Steve McGarrett, Navy Reserve, and the chief of Hawaii Five-O."

"Sir," Beverley immediately went to attention. She had known there were VIP's on the flight, she just hadn't known who, or that Navy Reserve commanders wore weapons in shoulder holsters.

"At ease," Steve said, "You were on the _Andromeda_?" She nodded, unsure of what was going on. "Good. Danny, grab a notebook. Maybe Petty Officer Patterson here can fill in some blanks for us. Is there a place where we can talk?"

"The crew's break area is in back," she said.

* * *

The break area consisted of a small table and four chairs bolted to the floor in an alcove just behind the forward restrooms. Danny took one look at it and knew why the crew favored crates and rolls of canvas for their card games.

Patterson didn't look happy. Her time on the _Andromeda_ had not been pleasant and she had been relieved to be reassigned to air cargo when her sea time was up. Now she was sitting across from an officer who wanted her to relive the whole nightmare and didn't look like he was willing to accept anything but the entire story.

Steve could sense Patterson's reluctance to talk. He looked across the table at the young petty officer, wondering what had happened on that ship that made her so hesitant.

"Did you know MS3 Jennifer Lynn Weeks?" he asked his voice gentle _. Thank you, my Little Menehune, you taught me how to talk to these women_.

"Not very well, sir," she said as evasively as possible. "I saw her on the mess decks. She was one of the line cooks. Nice kid. Shame what happened to her."

"How long have you been in the Navy?"

"Almost ten years," she answered. "I've been in Hawaii for eight months now. I'm starting to like it there."

"Thinking about making it a career?"

She hadn't been expecting that question. "Don't know, sir. I guess it all depends."

"On what?"

"I suppose if I got reassigned to a ship. I doubt I'd reenlist."

"Want to tell me why."

"You're a reserve officer, right, sir?" she asked. "Not regular Navy. With all due respect, sir, when was the last time you were on a ship for anything other than training?"

"Longer ago than I care to think about. I know everything is different now. There were no women on the ships when I was on active duty."

"The Navy keeps telling us things will get better. It hasn't. Or at least it hasn't on some of the ships. The _Andromeda_ was a mess. And I'm not talking about the pregnancy rate. You never hear the part about how half those women were married to other sailors, just that they all got knocked up while at sea."

Steve decided to change tactics. "Did you know a CPO Donald Wayne Waldrop?" Beverley's face paled. Bingo! "You did, didn't you? I know he was brought up on charges of sexual harassment and assault twice and that the charges were dismissed both times."

Patterson was quiet, too quiet.

"You better answer me. What do you know about CPO Donald Wayne Waldrop?"

Patterson was staring at the tabletop. When she looked up, Steve saw the same blank, unfocused stare that he'd seen in Maggie's eyes way too often.

"If I say anything," she said, "there goes my career. You complain they find ways to make your life unbearable. You report harassment, you better be as pure as the driven snow. You make the mistake of reporting a rape, you find yourself on the wrong end of discharge proceedings. Thanks, but no thanks, sir."

 _She sounds like Maggie, her drawl gets thicker when she's upset_ , Steve observed. "Petty Officer Patterson, I can promise you that there will be no repercussions toward you for anything you tell me. Do you have any idea why I am asking questions about Chief Waldrop?"

"Other than he's a prick, no, sir."

"Chief Waldrop is wanted for questioning for the murder of nineteen year old Army private Tami Wilson, MS2 Jennifer Weeks from the _Andromeda_ , and IC3 Roberta Paxton from the _North Star_. Three service women just like you. If you know anything, and I mean anything at all, you need to tell me now. Do I make myself clear?"

"Oh, my god!" she covered her face with her hands. "He did do it! That's what everyone said when she went over the side. We knew he did it but couldn't prove it. We knew she didn't kill herself!"

Steve reached over and gently patted her shoulder. The young woman was shaking with emotion. "Who's 'we', honey?'

"Every female sailor on that fucking ship, sir," she said, tears streaming down her face. Danny handed her a napkin from the dispenser on the wall.

"You want to tell me about it now?" he asked softly.

She gave a barely perceptible nod. "It was bad enough we were going off to war, we also had to put up with _him_." It was amazing how much venom she put in that one pronoun. "He was a bosuns mate and he was all over the damned ship. He wasn't the only one we had to watch out for, but he was the worse and the only one who had run of the entire ship. I swear that bastard even had key to women's berthing. You learned early on to never be alone when he was around. He was disgusting. Couldn't keep his hands to himself and was always lurking in dark corners, trying for a free peek. It got to where we always went places in pairs. Pretty damned sad when you're in more danger from another sailor than from the enemy."

Steve let her take her time telling her story. "Was this before or after the War?" He wanted her to verify the information they already had and to keep her talking.

"Before, on our way to the Persian Gulf," she said. "We left out of San Diego just before Thanksgiving. We'd stopped in Hawaii, and then the Philippines. We'd just left when she went overboard. I knew Jenny from when I was mess deck master at arms. She was a really nice girl. Waldrop singled her out for some special attention, or at least that's what he called it. She never complained. I think she was afraid of being discharged and not having a way to support her kid. That bastard was always finding an excuse to get her on his work party. Didn't happen nearly as much as he wanted it to because she was one of the better cooks and master chief wanted her on the mess decks. Can I get a drink of water, please? There's bottled water in the cooler on the bulkhead."

Danny got the water, opened the bottle and handed it to her. She took a long drink and continued her story.

"We were two days out of the Philippines and she was doing midrats. That's late chow for you civilians, eight until midnight." she explained when she caught the confused look on Danny's face. _He looks like a little lost puppy with those big ole blue eyes_ , she thought. "I'll never forget that night. The moon was so bright it lit up the entire sea. It was bright enough to read by. I'd gone up on the weather decks before my watch just to look at it. The sea was calm and peaceful, almost like glass, and the moon was huge and round and full. The kind of night you only get out on the open ocean and the only good thing about being on a ship. Around ten Waldrop comes storming down to the mess decks, screaming about some crisis in a storage compartment and that he needs Jenny for the work party. She was done serving so master chief tells her to go with him. That was the last time anyone saw her. She didn't show up for work the next day and she wasn't in her berthing area. Waldrop claimed they were done by midnight and she'd gone back to the mess deck, the lying bastard. I was on duty until two that morning and she never showed back up. The ship went to general quarters for a headcount and she was still a no show. Then we searched that rustbucket from bow to stern until one of the deck apes found her clothes on the weather decks. All the male senior chiefs got together and decided she had jumped. Bullshit. That bastard killed her just as sure as I'm sitting here. She disappeared off the face of the earth and they called it a suicide. Her kid didn't even get the insurance."

"Thank you, Petty Officer Patterson. When we get back to Hawaii, I'm going to need you to make a sworn statement to the judge advocate about what you just told me. I promise you won't get into any trouble over telling the truth. Are you stationed out of Hickem?"

"Yes, sir, only we fly out all over the Pacific. Best part of the job."

"When we get back to the Islands, I want you to go see Sergeant Alden at the Stars and Stripes and tell her your story. She'll listen and see to it that the truth comes out."

"Sergeant? Is she a Marine?"

"No, she's Army. She was also in the Gulf War. You can trust her."

"Why?"

"Because I do." Steve checked his watch. If the flight was on schedule they were still three hours out from Guam. "Petty Officer Patterson, I'm going to need a yeoman for the rest of this mission. You're going to be my shadow until we get back to Honolulu. I'll have your orders changed when we land at Guam."

"But, sir, I've got stuff to do! After Singapore this plane goes on to Diego Garica."

"It will do so without you. Do what a very wise man once told me to do: delegate." He reached across the table, taking both her hands in his, realizing he was probably violating about a dozen fraternization rules in one go. "On behalf of the Navy I want to apologize for the incidents that occurred on the _Andromeda_. I know it probably doesn't mean much at this late date, but it's all I can offer for now, and the promise that justice will be served. Danny, go with her. Make sure she stays out of harms way."

"You got it. Come on, Petty Officer, we've got a game of Uno to finish. Want to join us, Steve?"

"Only if you want every Airedale back there dead from extreme protocol. I think I'll finish my nap."

He went back to the front of the plane, reclined his seat, and slept, dreaming of a women with moonlight hair.

After Steve had left, Patterson looked over at Danny. "Is he always like that?" she asked.

Danny nodded. "For as long as I've known him and that's been a good while now."

"Any chance we can get him back on active duty?"

"I doubt it. Hey, there isn't a Mr. Patterson out there anywhere, is there?"

"Not anymore. I left his sorry butt back in Alabama. Is there a Mrs. Williams back on the Rock?" _Why not_ , she thought, _he may be older but he's darn cute and has a really nice ass, and best of all, not one creepy vibe._

"No Mrs. Williams back on the Rock or anywhere else. Want to go out sometimes when we get back to Hawaii? I can be your tour guide." _Why not,_ he thought _, it seems to be working for Steve._

"Officer Williams, you've got yourself a deal. Come on, let's go make sure Claudia and the boys don't wreck the plane."


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER EIGHT

Guam was being overrun by brown vipers. The snakes had hitchhiked in the wheel wells of cargo aircraft and with no natural predators on the island, had made themselves at home. Steve and Danny received a lecture on the anti-snake measures now in place to prevent any further spread of the species.

"Don't leave anything on the tarmac," Petty Officer Patterson lectured. "Don't bring any unsealed containers on board. And for heaven's sake, watch where you step. The damned things are everywhere. They're not venomous to humans unless you're allergic to them, only you won't know that unless one of them tags you, and even if you're not, it still hurts like hell."

Danny was so intent on looking at the ground that he stumbled into Beverly as she led the way to the hanger that served as a terminal. "Sorry," he said, brushing against her firm muscular body.

"Don't be," she said, russet eyes twinkling behind the lightly tinted lenses of her sunglasses. "Honestly, the snakes aren't that dangerous. They're only aggressive if you annoy them. The biggest ones are only about six feet long and they're rear fanged. It's very hard for one to deliver a bite to a full grown human."

"You seem to know a lot about snakes."

"Only the ones I have to deal with on a daily basis. Look, I've got cargo to get loaded. I'll see you back on the plane." She retreated into the hanger as Danny watched; intrigued by the way her hips were swaying. _Flight suits_ , he decided, _are a lot sexier than you'd think_.

"You coming, Danno?" Steve asked innocently. "Or are you going to stand there and let that snake crawl up your leg?"

He jumped back at least two feet, no snake in sight.

* * *

 _Is there anyone in this quadrant of the galaxy that Steve doesn't know_ , thought Danny as they entered the blessedly cool hanger. The post skipper, Captain David Clark, greeted Steve like an old friend, which, in fact, they were, having been Midshipmen at the Naval Academy together.

"Steve, good to see you, old man. What brings you to the armpit of the Pacific?"

"Good too see you, too. This is my associate, Dan Williams from Five-O. Danno, this is Captain David Clark." Danny shook hands with the captain. "I wish this was a social call. I'm on the trail of a killer and could use a little help. I need orders assigning Petty Officer Beverly Patterson to me as my yeoman until we return to Hawaii. Then I need a WATTS line. I have to call home."

"You going to tell me what's this about, or do I have to get you drunk and drag it out of you?"

"Didn't you hear? I gave up the hooch years ago. I'm also going to need to send a message to the skipper on the _Edmonds_." He handed a copy of the warrant for CPO Waldrop to Clark. "I want this creep locked up in the most secure cell on board. He's to be under twenty four hour watch. If it's at all possible I want women guarding him. Arm them with tasers. Authorize their use if this bastard so much as looks at them wrong."

Clark read the warrant. "This is some serious shit. You sure you have the right man?"

"It's him alright. I want him taken down hard and fast, before he gets a chance to destroy evidence."

"You got it. I'll send over a copy of the warrants. Amazing what we can do with computers these days. Just one question, is this for the Navy or Five-O?"

"Both," Steve said. "Whichever way gets him back to Hawaii the fastest."

"You know you jumped a day when you crossed the dateline, if that's any help. Come on, the WATTS line is in my office. We can get some dinner after. Mr. Williams, will you be joining us or are you still jumping at invisible snakes."

"Are all you Navy people comedians?" Danny wanted to know. "I think I'll go keep an eye on Petty Officer Patterson. See if she needs anything." Danny cautiously made his way to the hanger, checking for snakes with every step.

"Why do you want Patterson assigned as your yeoman anyway? She's a good sailor. Wish I could find about dozen more like her."

"It's either that or take her into custody as a material witness. She was on the _Andromeda_ when the Weeks kid went over the side."

"Strange how things work out sometime. I'll leave you to the phones. The access code is 6789. Don't give me that look. It's the only thing I can remember these days."

Steve punched in the code and dialed the Five-O offices. Kono answered.

"Hey, Bruddah," said the big Hawaiian, the line echoing faintly from the satellite bounce. "What you need?"

"I need a list of every female sailor from the _North Star_ and the _Andromeda_ who served with Paxton and Weeks and are still in the Navy. Find out where they are now. Also check into any who may have settled in the Islands after they left the Navy. Get the list and get it over to Maggie or Sgt Yablanski at the Stars and Stripes and those two only."

"Sure ting, Bruddah, you want me to email you a copy?"

"Send one to Danno, too. Anything else happening that I should know about?"

"The governor's office called. They was apologizing about the picture in the paper."

"What picture in what paper?"

"You and the Little _Menehune_ at the governor's palace. It was in Sunday's Courier. She look real good in that uniform. Jenny cut it out for the scrapbook."

"I'll check it out when I get back. When you see Maggie, remind her she needs to go to the DMV. Later." The Little _Menehune_. The Five-O crew had named her, which meant they were expecting her to be around for a while. _That's why I only hire the smart ones_ , he thought. His watch was still set on Honolulu time. It was 1545 back in the Islands. She'd still be at work. He scrolled through his phone until he found the picture of her sitting on his bed wearing his officer's cap. Twelve hours out and he missed her already. He dialed the number for her office, his mood improving rapidly as soon as he heard her soft southern drawl.

"How's my Little M _enehune_?" he asked.

"Trying to stay busy to keep from thinking about how much I miss you. You're in Singapore already? That was quick."

"No, refueling stop on Guam. We'll be here another couple of hours or so. Tomorrow Kono is going to bring you a list of women who were on a couple of Navy ships. I want you and Lu to run down as many as you can and find out if they're willing to talk about their time at sea. I'll explain why when I get back."

"That sounds more like police work than reporting. Want to give me a reason why you want us to do the questioning instead of a police officer."

"Now you're sounding more like a police officer than a reporter. Because, my Little _Menehune_ , you two are the best weapons we have in the arsenal for the job that needs to be done. You're enlisted female service members and that makes you uniquely qualified in ways a police officer isn't. I have a suspicion those women will be more inclined to talk to another enlisted woman than to any man, military or civilian."

"I suppose when you put it like that. Uniquely qualified. First time I've ever been called that. You know, you still haven't told me what a _menehune_ is."

"A _menehune_ , according to our resident expert on all things Hawaiian, is small, mischievous, and very magical forest spirit. Wherever they go, magic happens, and sweetie, you've been magic since the day I met you."

"You're kinda magical yourself there, Commander. I don't suppose you saw the Sunday paper? We made the society pages of the Honolulu Courier. I swear I didn't know papers still printed stuff like that. It's a good picture, even if I look more like I'm in the Girl Scouts instead of the Army."

"Kono told me about it. You're not upset, are you?"

"Only about the lack of fact checking by whoever wrote the caption. I had no idea that I was there with one of Hawaii's most eligible bachelors, I'm not 'mysterious', the WAC's disbanded in the seventies, and I didn't realize you were that much taller than I am until I saw the picture."

"That's my Little _Menehune_. I was dreaming about you earlier. It was very disappointing, dreaming about you and waking up to Danno."

"Maybe I'll dream about you tonight, if I can get to sleep. I've slept better this weekend than I have in years. Do you suppose it was the sound of the ocean?"

"Could be. Or maybe there was some other factor?"

"Well, there is this one long, tall police detective that I'm getting so use to having around that I'm thinking about keeping him. How does that sound to you?"

"Like I wish you were here to see how happy that makes me."

"I think I'm falling in love with you, Commander," she said softly.

"I think I'm a little past that, Sergeant." he said calmly, as joy rose in his heart and overflowed, making his blood sing. "I've got some things to do before the flight leaves. Goodnight, my Little _Menehune_." He hung up the phone, a contented little half smile playing about the corner of his mouth.

"That must have been some phone call." Steve hadn't heard Clark come in. "Good news?"

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

"Let's go get some dinner. You might have given up the hooch but I need a cold beer. Your orders have been transmitted to the _Edmonds_. We should have a reply before your plane leaves. You can fill me in on the rest of the story over chow. And then you can tell me who this Little _Menehune_ is and why I haven't seen you looking this happy since we were Middy's."

* * *

The reply came from the _Edmonds_ half an hour before the plane departed. Captain Clark had relayed the message to Steve and Danny just before they boarded, along with the orders temporarily assigning Petty Officer Patterson as Steve's yeoman.

"He's in the can, Steve. They hit him so fast he didn't even have time to blink. Hasn't a clue why he's in lock up. The ship is being searched even as we speak. If there's anything on there, they'll find it. That was an interesting call about having women guarding him. So far he's been tasered three times. It seems the ladies on the _Edmonds_ have been dying for little payback on this joker for some time now. There's a list of volunteers waiting to get their dainty little hands on a taser."

 _Still got it,_ he thought _, computers are never going to replace instinct_. "He's not going to like having women in charge. Good. That'll make our job a whole lot easier. He'll be ready for what he's going to think of as like minded company."

"That would be someone with a penis," observed Beverly, a look of total disgust on her freckled face.

Steve raised an eyebrow. He'd learned more from these enlisted women in the last week than he'd ever thought he'd need to know. "If you ever decide to leave the Navy and want a career in law enforcement," he said. "Come see me."

"Trade one uniform for another? Maybe. Honolulu beats the hell out of Demopolis, Alabama any day of the week. Okay, gentlemen, lets get aboard this crate and go get that creep. See you next trip, Captain Clark." She saluted and started up the ramp, Danny and Steve following, Danny taking the opportunity to have a good long look at her firm body ascending the steps.

"Officer Williams," Steve said, "that look is borderline sexual harassment." They were making their way to the front of the plane and getting ready for takeoff. Beverly and the rest of the aircrew were busy with pre flight prep.

"We're going out to dinner when we get back to the Rock. There is something about a woman in uniform."

"There certainly is, Danno, something very special." Steve said, as they settled into their seats. _Especially when you combine it with a southern drawl_ , he added to himself. "You know, I've got over thirty years combined active and reserve time in, and this is the first time I've ever given more than half a thought to enlisted women. If I haven't, then you know the rest of the military hasn't either. Damn, I'm getting too old for this. The world's changing too fast."

"Hopefully for the better," Danny said. The jet engines fired up, causing the plane to vibrate. "Eight hours to Singapore. We'll be there when the _Edmonds_ docks. We take that monster into custody and take him back to for trial. The women on the _Edmonds_ will be safe."

"Yes, for now. But look how long he got away with it before we caught him. Two years ago we were still grasping at straws. Now we've got computers that can find things in minutes that would have taken us weeks before. Things are changing and we're going to need a whole new breed of cops to keep up."

"Thinking about recruiting Sgt Alden?"

Steve looked at Danny as if he'd grown an extra head. "No. Not ever. The last thing I want to think about is Maggie going up against a two hundred pound coked out Samoan. Not going to happen."

"Sure you're not being a little overprotective there, Steve."

"Maybe," he said. "Someone has to do it. Might as well be me." He took out the paperback Maggie had given him before he left. _Guards Guards_ by Terry Pratchett. When he did get time to read it was mostly history or books about police procedure. This was a work of fantasy. Whoever this Pratchett was he was one of Maggie's favorite writers and he was willing to give it a shot, if for no other reason than to understand some of the more obscure literary references she was making. "I think I'm going to take some of her advice and escape into another world for a while. This is supposed to be about coppers." There was a picture of a dragon on the cover. "I wonder what dragons have got to do with coppers?"

"That's easy," Danny said, "we're always chasing them in one form or another." He stretched and tried to stifle a yawn. "Think I'll try to get some sleep. Wake me when we get to Singapore."

* * *

 _Uniquely qualified_ , Maggie said to herself as she changed the password on her computer prior to shutting it down. _Spend one weekend with the man and I'm missing him already_ and, if she were being totally honest with herself, she couldn't wait to get her hands back on his long tall body, or his big hands all over hers. _Damn, my libido has gone into overload!_

She kept getting the oddest feeling that someone was snooping in her office, and she was convinced it was Hardin. _Or maybe I'm just being paranoid because I can't stand the jerk_. That's why she locked everything up and changed her password daily. She knew he'd never guess her passwords, since they were obscure literary references and she doubted he'd willingly opened a book since he dropped out of high school.

She had just put on her jacket and beret, and was getting her purse prior to heading out the door when Hardin appeared.

"Where you going, Alden?" he asked. "Got a hot date?"

"Yeah, with the pool at the fitness center. What do you want?"

"You're up to something." He said, with what he thought of as a sly look, but was more of a leer. "You and Master Sergeant Alphabet. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm going to find out, and when I do, you two are going down."

Maggie did not like the way he was looking at her. He was making her very uncomfortable. "Top, what in the hell are you talking about. That's about the stupidest thing you've ever said, and believe me, that takes some doing." That leer was starting to get on her nerves. Worse still, he was blocking the path to the door.

"Where's your boyfriend the cop?"

"Excuse me?"

"Too good for the rest of us now that you got your picture in the society pages?"

"Is that what this is all about? Because some photographer stuck a camera in my face? Get over it. That wasn't my idea and I sure as hell didn't know I was going to end up in that fishwrapper of a newspaper."

Hardin was slowly backing her into the room. Every alarm bell in her body was ringing off the hook. Her hand dropped to the top of the desk, searching for anything to use as a weapon. All she found was the computer keyboard. Not optimum but it'd do in a pinch.

"Hardin, I already told you once before you need to back off. You need to do it now."

"Attitude, short round. That attitude is going to get you in deep trouble. With an attitude like that, I bet you like it rough."

He was tall and skinny and reeked of coffee and stale cigarettes and Old Spice cologne that was well past its best use by date. He loomed over her, grabbing her upper arm hard enough to leave a bruise and shoving her back against the desk, her hip impacting with the metal and sending a shockwave of pain through her body. He reached up, twisting his fingers into the braid at the back of her head, jerking her head back painfully.

 _Fuck this!_ , she thought, kneeing him in the groin and swinging the keyboard at the same time. The keyboard shattered on impact. Hardin clutched his testicles and went down, curled in a fetal position and moaning. She kicked him in the ear with one round toed patent leather uniform pump, snatched up her bag, and ran like hell.

She was back at her room at the BEQ before she realized she'd lost one of her shoes. She must have momentarily blacked out, because the next thing she remembered was Lu standing over her. "Maggie, honey, what the hell happened to you? My god, your jackets a mess and you're missing a shoe."

She looked down. The ribbons had been torn off her jacket. Her stockings were shredded, and one shoe was gone. Her braid had come unpinned and was uncoiling messily down her back. "It was Hardin," she spat, his name like poison from her mouth. "I was getting ready to leave when he came in. Said I had a bad attitude and that he bet I liked it rough. I kneed him in the groin and coldcocked him with my keyboard. I may have kicked him in the head, or at least that's what I was aiming for. Last I saw him he was on the floor of my office, clutching is nuts and moaning. I got the hell out of there before he could get up."

"Crap," Lu said. "We've got to report this."

"No, we don't. He's not going to admit he had his scrawny ass kicked by a five foot female. I want to see what his next move is going to be."

"You need to go see a doctor."

"Oh, hell, no. I'm not spending the rest of the night in the ER. I'm going to have a few bruises and that's about it. I'll bet he's going to be walking funny for the next week." She gave Lu an evil grin. "I didn't know kneeing someone in the nuts could be so satisfying."

"He's gonna be royally pissed!"

"I suspect I bruised his ego more than his balls. Damn, I'm gonna need a new keyboard."

Lu gave Maggie a worried look. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head, because you're not making one damn bit of sense. This is so not good. You think he was bad before, he's going to be worse. He's going to charge you with assault."

"No, he's not. His ego won't let him. He was babbling about you and me being up to something and that we were going down when he found out what it was. I think he's finally lost it. I say sit back and see what he does next."

"Makes me wonder what kind of cover story he's going to come up with for this. Oh, let me guess, it's going to involve at least three guys all larger than he is wearing turbans and brandishing scimitars. He's about that stupid. Or the next sound we hear is going to be the MP's beating down the door to arrest your half sized ass."

"I'm opting for the first one, but if he does call the MP's, I'm going to need a shower before they get here. You wouldn't have an empty shopping bag, would you?"

"Yes, why? You want to go shopping?"

"No. You don't hang out with a cop very long before you learn about this thing called chain of evidence. My uniform is going in the bag, just in case he does call the MP's."

"That's the best idea you've had all night. Where are your other shoe and your ribbons?"

"I have no idea. At least I've got another set. And a clean uniform. This jacket's ruined. I ought to send the bastard a bill."

Lu had returned, carrying an empty Victoria's Secret shopping bag. Maggie carefully removed and folded the uniform before putting it in the bag.

Lu handed Maggie the robe hanging from a hook on the back of the door. "You sure you don't want to see a doctor. That's one nasty looking bruise on your hip."

"No. No doctors. Unless he gets stupid and calls the MP's. I'm off to the shower then I think I'm going to bed. Steve's going to call when they get to Singapore. Damn, I really need to see that man right now."

"Yeah, and when you do you're going to have to explain how you got some really nasty bruises. He ain't going to be happy about this."

"Oh, shit! No, he's not! What the hell am I suppose to tell him?"

"I'd suggest telling the truth. He doesn't look like the kind who tolerates lying. I can't wait until tomorrow to hear Hardin's cover story."

"Me neither." Maggie said as she was heading to the shower.

* * *

Danny had awakened three hours into the flight. Steve was still reading, engrossed in the book with a dragon on the cover. "I'm going to talk to the Airedales," he said. Steve grunted a response and went back to his book.

He found Beverly sitting alone on a crate near the middle of the plane, wrapped in a soft pale green blanket and clutching a scruffy brown teddy bear that he knew she must have brought aboard in her luggage. She had unpinned her hair, and it fell in shoulder length waves around her face. The rest of the crew were either napping, reading, or in Claudia's case, doing needlepoint.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked.

She moved over on the crate to make room. "Looking kind of serious there," he said.

"Just thinking."

"Can I ask about what?"

"What the Commander was saying. About me and law enforcement. Do you think he meant it? Or was he just blowing smoke?"

"I've known Steve a long time. If he said it, he meant it. He's a good guy."

"What about you? Are you a good guy?"

"I like to think that I am. Why?"

"This is why," she said. Before he could react, her arms were around his neck and her lips were on his. She tasted of mint toothpaste and smelled of jasmine and jet fuel. He pulled her closer, kissing her back and enjoying the feel of her body next to his. When she finally drew back, she smiled up at him. "Sorry. I've wanted to do that since I saw you jumping at invisible snakes."

"Don't apologize. I've been having some of the same ideas."

"Really? We're four hours out from Singapore. Want to join the mile high club?"

 _Why,_ Danny thought _, why oh why do these offers always come when there is no way I can take them?_ "Please don't take this the wrong way, because right at this moment there's nothing I'd like better. You're worth more than a quick romp on some crate in the back of a cargo jet, a lot more."

She reached up to run her fingers through his tangled curls. "You are one of the good ones."

"Who's regretting that more by the minute," he said, tilting her face upward to kiss her again. "If we have time, I'd really like to take you to dinner when we get to Singapore. Maybe you could show me around. I haven't been there in years."

"I think I can do that, since I'll be deplaning with you guys. The rest of the crew is going on to Diego Garcia. I belong to Commander McGarrett until we're back in Honolulu." She stretched and yawned, snuggling closer as she did so.

"Tired?" he asked.

"A little. Today started at around 0130."

Danny leaned back against a canvas covered roll that was almost as comfortable as the seats in the front of the plane.

"It'll be a tight fit but I think there's room enough here for all three of us to lie down."

"Three of us?"

"Yeah, you, me, and the bear, although I think I'm cuddlier than the bear," he said smiling, a mischievous gleam in his azure blue eyes. For a brief moment she looked up at him with that strange unfocused gaze he'd seen earlier when Steve was questioning her about serving on the _Andromeda_ and when Lu and Maggie were talking about the Reforger that wasn't. He held her just a bit tighter and slowly felt her relax against his shoulder. "You sleep. I'll keep you safe."

He took off his jacket and tie and hung his holstered weapon on the edge of the crate. Beverly snuggled next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. He covered her with the blanket, stroking her soft wavy hair until she fell asleep, wondering when the scent of jasmine and jet fuel got so damned sexy.

Steve was right. There was something very special about women in uniform.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER NINE

The plane landed in Singapore at 1930 hours Tuesday. Beverly gave her crew last minute instructions and deplaned with Steve and Danny, towing a small wheeled suitcase behind her. The commander of NCIS Singapore met them on the tarmac.

"Welcome to Singapore, Commander. I'm Lt. Majors, no jokes please; I've heard them all already. I'm your liaison while you're here. Is there anything I can get for you before we proceed to your quarters?"

"I need access to a WATTS line and a computer terminal. Petty Officer Patterson is going to need a dress uniform and a set of yeoman's chevrons."

"As you say, sir. Please come with me. There's a WATTS line and secure computer system at the VOQ. I'll call the tailor shop as soon as we get there. Just give me the sizes and they can bring over anything she may need. Is there anything else, sir?"

"Just a hot shower and a place to crash. I'm getting too old for these long flights." Steve arched his back, not wanting to admit how stiff and sore he felt after more than twenty hours in the air.

"You got it, sir. The _Edmonds_ docks at 0900 hours tomorrow morning. I have you set up with a 0500 wakeup call."

"Thank you Lt. Majors. That will be all."

They piled into a waiting humvee. Danny reached over and squeezed Beverley's hand. For the first time since he had met her she seemed apprehensive. She gave him a small shy smile in return.

The group checked into the VOQ. Steve went off to find the WATTS line and a computer terminal, leaving Danny and Beverly to haul the baggage upstairs to their rooms, which turned out to be clean and furnished with very comfortable looking beds. They had been assigned a suite with two bedrooms and a bathroom in the middle. One of the rooms had a king size bed, the other two doubles.

"Looks like I get to bunk with the boss," Danny grumbled, dropping the luggage on the floor and hoping that Beverly's earlier offer was still good.

Any thought of pursuing that idea was squashed by the appearance of an elderly Singaporean woman from the tailor shop. She hustled Beverly into the other room for fitting, leaving a very disappointed Danny standing in the middle of the room. _Just my luck_ , he thought, _I_ _hope that shower has lots of cold water_.

* * *

Maggie was having one of those nights when sleep wouldn't come, and if it did it was only for a very short time and teeming with nightmares. It didn't help that her back hurt like hell and there was a dull throb in her hip that wouldn't go away. At Lu's instance she'd taken one of the pain pills prescribed by her doctor. It wasn't helping much.

After Lu had left, Maggie had crawled into bed and hid under the covers, trying to cry quietly. She hated crying. Always had. In the first year after her husband had been killed she had cried so much she didn't think she had any tears left to shed. There were times when she couldn't remember what had hurt the worse, the pain from the injuries, or the pain of losing Michael. When she'd finally recovered enough to think clearly she had sworn she'd never risk her heart to that much pain again, and it had worked. That was until she'd met Steve. Tonight she was missing him so badly the pain was nearly physical.

She answered the phone on the first ring.

"I know you weren't sleeping. You answered the phone too quickly." There was a slight echo on the line. She didn't care. If he was calling it meant he was on the ground and safe.

"I couldn't get to sleep. Guess I'm feeling kinda lonesome."

"What's wrong, sweetie? You sound like you've been crying."

"Maybe a few tears. It's been kind of a bad day. I'm sorry; I haven't been a fan of military aircraft since Michael's plane was shot down. I know it's irrational, we're not at war with anyone and even if we were you wouldn't be near a combat zone, but there you have it, another one of my many military induced peccadilloes."

"I don't want my Little _Menehune_ crying over me. I'd rather see you smiling."

"I'll do lots of that when you're back home. I didn't know I was going to miss you this much."

He could hear her trying to hold back the tears. "Ssssushh," he whispered. "I'll be home soon."

"What am I ever suppose to do with you, Commander?"

"I already told you. You can keep me."

"Okay."

"What was that, sweetie? It sounds like you're crying." He could tell she was crying and it was tearing his heart out.

"I said 'okay'. I'll keep you."

"That's my girl. Now quit crying and try to get some sleep. I know its late back on the Islands."

"More like early. There are too many time zones and a dateline between us."

"The good thing about that is on the way back I gain an extra day to spend with you. I love you, my Little _Menehune._ "

"I think I love you, too."

"Just think?"

"I'll know for sure when I see you again and get a chance to show you. I borrowed one of your shirts."

"Borrowed?" he asked, half smiling. He would have gladly given her every shirt he owned if it made her happy.

"I knew I was going to miss you, so I kinda sorta borrowed the one you had on yesterday. It still smells like you. I'm wearing it now. Makes me feel not quite so lonely."

"Wish I were there to see you in it. And then to get you out of it. You are one amazing lady. I'm going to be very busy for the next day or two, so don't get upset if you don't hear from me. I'll be thinking about you every minute. Goodnight, sweetie." He ended the call, missing her more than ever.

* * *

Chin Ho and Kono arrived at the Stars and Stripes building the next morning to find MP's and HPD were both on scene. Wondering hat was up they went inside and stopped the first HPD officer they saw.

"Hey, Brudah," said the HPD officer, a native Hawaiian named Kanoa. "You got here fast. We only just called the Five-O 'bout a minute ago."

"What up?" asked Kono, wondering where the Little _Menehune_ was.

"Damnedest thing I've ever heard. Dude claims he heard a noise and came in to investigate. He said he saw two dudes break into one of the offices. Says they beat him up pretty bad but he managed to get away, kick both their asses, and run them off. Claims he whacked one with a keyboard. We found the broke keyboard and a smashed monitor. The office is trashed, only what he's saying ain't jiving with what we found at the scene."

Chin's phone was ringing. "We're here already," he said. "No, we don't have ESP, I'll tell you about it later." He ended the call. "Okay, now we're officially here. What's the story?"

"Like I said, dude swears he caught two other dudes breaking in, got into a fight with them and managed to run them off. Only thing is, there's nothing on scene to indicate that there was anyone other than the one dude and one possible female. We found these," he held up three evidence bags. One held a small patent leather low heeled uniform pump with what looked like blood on the toe, the second held a rack of military ribbons with a swatch of a dark green uniform fabric clinging to one pin, and the third held three hairpins and several strands of long silver hair. "See, nothing adds up. All this stuff points to a woman and one wearing a uniform at that. All we gotta do is find the Cinderella the shoe fits."

"Whose office was it?" asked Chin.

The cop checked his paperwork. "It says here it belongs to one SFC Alden. She's in with the CO right now."

"The Little _Menehune_? Oh, the Big Man ain't gonna like this at all!" Kono said.

"What the hell you talking about, Brudah?" asked Konoa

"Nothing you ain't gonna find out from somewhere else later on. We need to find Sgt Alden or Sgt Yablanski," said Chin.

"Take a number and wait. Those two are real popular right now. Everyone wants to have a word with them."

"Let me see 'dat bag with the hair in it," Kono demanded. Kanoa passed it over. "I know who 'dat hair go to, and I suspect 'dat her shoe, too. She ain't real big. Let me have that stuff for now. Where'd you say 'dem two _wahine_ sergeants were?"

"In with the company commander. His name is Colonel Dale. You know something we don't know."

"Yeah, if 'dat little woman been hurt, I wouldn't want to be the one that done it. Which way?"

Kanoa pointed to the CO's door. Kono knocked and entered without waiting for a reply.

"Who are you?" Colonel Dale demanded.

"I know them, Colonel," Maggie said. "They're both with Five-O." She introduced Chin and Kono to Lu and the Colonel, Lu giving Kono a very appreciative once over. "What are y'all doing here?"

"Steve asked us to drop a list of Navy women off to you," said Chin, "I didn't know we were going to end up in the middle of a crime scene."

"It would seem that someone broke into Sgt Alden's office last night," said Col. Dale. "Or at least that's the first sergeant's story and he's sticking to it. Sgt Alden, on the other hand, is being somewhat evasive about answering questions."

Kono was looking very sharply at Maggie. Her face was too pale and here eyes were red and swollen. She looked as if she had spent more of the previous night crying than sleeping. Something wasn't right, he could tell. "Little Miss _Menehune,_ is 'dis your shoe? You about the only person up here who got a foot this little. And I know 'dat your hair. You might as well tell me now."

 _Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap_ , ran through Maggie's mind, _oh, just crap!_ So far she'd been very evasive with the CO and she knew he was losing patience. Lu pinned her with a look that meant ' _out with it!_ '

"Okay, already. Yes, it's my shoe, and probably my hair, and if you found my ribbons I'd really like to have them back."

Colonel Dale gave her a very stern and exasperated look. "You have got to be the world's worse liar, and by that I mean you suck at it. Hardin, on the other hand, is an expert. Would you care to tell me what really happened?"

She told him. He stopped her only once to ask her if she had any proof. She told him about the ruined uniform back at the BEQ. She took off her jacket and rolled up her shirt sleeve to show the bruises on her left upper arm and lifted her skirt enough to show the lower edges of the bruise on her hip.

When she finished, he asked one question. "Do you think he was trying to rape you?"

"Sir, I really don't know and I wasn't going to stick around to ask him."

"He put his hands on you," Kono said, "and left those marks, he pulled your hair and tore your uniform. That look like attempted rape to me. You want me to arrest him? Where he at anyway?"

"He's still at the hospital," said Lu, grinning evilly. "Our little Maggie here kneed him in the nuts so hard he has to have them surgically removed from his throat."

The men tried not to cringe. Chin sucked on his unlit pipe, wishing like hell he could have a smoke.

Kono was a big man, and like a lot of big men, was extremely gentle. He was also a deep thinker, and smarter than most people gave him credit for being, which suited him just fine. He was slow to anger, which was a very good thing, considering he was as strong as an ox. It took a lot to get him angry and bruises on a woman were at the top of a very short list of things that did.

"Other than the bruises," Kono asked, "did he hurt you in any way?"

"No, Kono," she said. "I think I was faster on the uptake than he expected. Or he was stupid enough to think women like that kind of crap. One of the advantages of being short, his groin was at knee level. I'm going to need a new keyboard. I broke my old one."

"So far," said Chin, "we've got filing a false police report, assault and battery, and a possible attempted rape. It's not looking good for your first sergeant."

"It sure ain't gonna look good when the Big Man see the bruises that creep left on the Little _Menehune_."

"What the hell's a little _menehune_?" Colonel Dale wanted to know. "And who's the Big Man."

"It's a Hawaiian nickname for a short person," Maggie said, blushing. "It's a term of endearment. Not like that derogatory 'short round' thing I'm so tired of hearing."

"I see," said Colonel Dale. "Sgt Alden, never play poker. You'll lose. It would appear that Hardin really screwed the pooch this time. Well, what are we going to do about it?"

"How quick can you get him off this Rock?" Kono asked.

"Would tomorrow be soon enough?" asked Colonel Dale.

"The sooner the better, unless the Little _Menehune_ want to charge him with something."

"Just get him the hell out of here," Maggie said. "I never want to see his ugly mug again."

"Works for me," said Colonel Dale. "That man's been a pain in my ass since he got here. As of this minute, First Sergeant Hardin is relieved of duty. Sgt Yablanski, you're the new First. I'll get your orders cut as soon as possible. Officer Kelly, Officer Kono, I'm sorry for any inconvenience that idiot may have caused."

"He doesn't know how lucky he is," said Chin. "You got twenty four hours to get him off this Island. I suggest he start packing." He took a folded sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. "This is a list of women who were on the _North Star_ and the _Andromeda_ and are still in the Navy and where they're stationed. It's also got the names and addresses of four women who have since left the Navy but settled here in the Islands. Steve wants these two ladies to interview as many of them as possible."

"Will do," said Lu. "Anything specific we need to ask them?"

"Right now he just wants to know if you can find them and get them to tell you about their time at sea. He said he'll explain when he gets back."

"Thanks, y'all," Maggie said. Now that everything was over, she was feeling shakier than she cared to admit. "When he called last night he said you would bring this by today. With everything that's been happening this morning I forgot about it. I'm sorry, Lu, I haven't been thinking clearly this morning."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Lu asked, again. "I still think you need to go see a doctor."

"I'm fine, really. Just a little more shook up than I thought, is all."

Kono was feeling a lot happier. "I am going to personally escort that sergeant onto the plane and off this Rock. What hospital he at? I tink he could use some company."

Chin held up a hand. "Not so fast. We got work to do today. I'm going to assign a pair of officers from HPD to watch him round the clock and make sure nothing bad happens to him," he said, giving Kono a sharp look as he did.

"Okay, you da boss," Kono said. "Come on, Brudah, we got to go set HPD straight on crime scene procedure."

The two detectives left. Colonel Dale glared at the two women standing in front of his desk.

"You two are the grown up version of the Thompson Twins and manage to cause twice as much trouble, a feat that I didn't think was possible. What the hell am I suppose to do with you two? Don't answer that! Out of my office. Sgt. Yablanski, get Sgt Alden to Trippler, I want her injuries entered into the record, and no arguments, please. I've got a load of calls to make to get that moron out of here before he gets his scrawny assed kicked by every cop on this damned Island. And when you get back, get to work! I want results on my desk by this afternoon. Dismissed!"

"Yes, sir!" they said together. They saluted and fled.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER TEN

It was a hot and humid morning in Singapore. Steve had opted for suntans instead of blues, with a light jacket to cover the sidearm. Danny was miserable in a jacket and tie. Beverly was in whites. The Singaporean tailor had done wonders and the uniform fit so well that it was giving him ideas for tonight that didn't involve listening to Steve snore.

"How long does it take one of these things to dock?" Danny asked. Sailors in whites and suntans lined the rail of the _Edmonds_ , waiting for a chance at shore leave.

"Depends," said Beverly. "The skipper asks for permission to land and a bunch of other protocol. No one gets off until then."

"Probably why I didn't join the Navy," Danny grumbled. Today Beverly was smelled of jasmine minus the jet fuel and looked way to young and innocent in that white uniform. What confidence she'd shown on the plane seemed to have fled. She nervously chewed her thumbnail. He couldn't get a reading on why she appeared to be so apprehensive. The cop in him wanted to ask her why. The male just wanted to hold her until her confidence returned.

Steve was looking off into the distance, his expression inscrutable behind dark glasses. "As soon as they're done, we board. No one leaves this ship until then."

"Waldrop still in lock up?" Danny asked.

"He's being brought to the skipper's ready room. In shackles. I had a call from the skipper early this morning. They found his stash."

"That why you're so quiet this morning?"

Steve looked at Danny over the tops of his sunglasses. "It never gets any easier. And it shouldn't. The minute it does is the minute you need to get out of this business."

A sailor in whites approached and saluted. "Sir, they're ready for you now."

"Thank you, sailor. Officer Williams, Yeoman Patterson, with me please."

They followed Steve up the gangway. Steve and Beverly saluted and asked for permission to come aboard.

"Permission granted, Commander," said the young female ensign who was on watch. "If you would follow me, Captain Shaw is waiting for you on the bridge."

"Thank you, Ensign. Let's get this over with."

Captain Shaw was a stocky black man with rapidly graying hair. In his career as a Navy officer, he thought he'd seen just about everything. That was until the day before when the warrants for Waldrop had been transmitted to the _Edmonds._

He shook hands with Steve and Danny and acknowledged Beverly's greeting. "Welcome aboard, Commander. I truly wish it were under different circumstances. What would you like to do first, question Waldrop, have a look in his locker, or feed him to the sharks?"

"What did the sharks ever do to deserve that?" Steve said, looking very grim. "Let's see what's in the locker first."

Captain Shaw unlocked the door to his office and ushered them inside. A standard sized foot locker, available at any army/navy surplus store was on his desk, secured by a chain and a very strong looking padlock. Waldrop's name was stenciled on the lid. "I personally chained and locked this thing myself and I've got the only key." He unlocked the padlock and unwrapped the chains. "I got Waldrop's keys, so we didn't have to pop the locks. I secured everything once I had a look. It's all yours and you're welcome to it." He handed Steve the key ring.

Steve opened the locker, dreading what he'd find.

He heard Beverly's sharp intake of breath and looked up to see Danny reach over to squeeze her hand.

The locker was filled with neatly organized plastic ziplock bags. "That's a lot of bags," Danny said.

"A lot more than I was expecting, that's for sure. Captain, could you get us some gloves?"

"I knew you'd ask that, Commander," he handed Steve a box of blue plastic gloves. "If there's anything else you need, let me know. The sooner I can get that rat bastard off my ship, the happier I'll be."

Steve nodded and slipped on the gloves. "Yeoman Patterson, get ready for your first lesson in police procedure. Always wear gloves when handling evidence. Prevents cross contamination and wasted time running down fingerprints that belong to cops instead of suspects."

He pulled out the first plastic bag on the left side of the locker. "It appears that Petty Officer Waldrop was thoughtful enough to date these for us. He was so convinced he'd never be caught he made himself a filing system. Easier to go back and relive his fantasies later. And here's the latest." On the right side of the locker, at the front of the case was a bag containing a set of beige cotton underwear, a watch with a black leather band, a pink zirconium ring, gold chain with an angel pendent, and a set of dogtags belonging to PFC Tami Lynn Wilson. He opened the bag and took out the pendent, holding it up to the light.

"The Angel Moroni," Danny said. "This is the first time Five-O has had divine intervention from both the Mormons and a _Menehune_."

"For once it looks like God is on our side." He dropped the chain back into the bag and sealed it. "What are the dates for Paxton and Weeks, Yeoman Patterson?"

"Sir, Paxton was February 1981 and Jenny was December 1990," she answered, not even bothering to check the notes in the black leather notebook she was carrying.

"Thank you, Yeoman." He searched through the bags. "Here's the first. Danno, you got gloves on?"

"Yepper. Ready when you are." Steve handed him the bag. It contained a pair of white panties and a white bra, a small diamond solitaire engagement ring, and Roberta Paxton's dogtags. "Paxton confirmed," Danny said.

"Here's the one for Weeks." Steve said. The bag held only a set of dogtags and a locket on silver chain. There was a gasp from Beverly. "Do you recognize this?" Steve asked, holding up the locket.

Beverly nodded. "It was a present from her mom. She had pictures of her son in it."

Steve found the catch and opened the locket. Inside was a small photo of a fat cheeked newborn on one side and a smiling four year old on the other. He closed the locket and dropped it back in the bag.

He collected the bags containing the effects of the three service women. "Weeks confirmed. Let's go rattle Chief Waldrop's cage."

* * *

Waldrop was shackled hand and foot to a chair in the Captain's ready room. There were two guards outside the door, two tall muscular women armed with batons and tasers. Two more stood on each side of his chair, taser at the ready.

Waldrop was not a happy camper. He had been rousted from sleep in the middle of the night by a four women armed with tasers and no qualms about using them. He'd spent the rest of the night in the brig, his questions as to why going unanswered. He had a suspicion one of the bitches the Navy kept insisting were sailors had made a complaint. Wouldn't be the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last either.

The door opened and the Skipper came in, accompanied by a tall man wearing Commander's oak leaves, a curly haired civilian who looked like a surfer, and a redhead in a yeoman's uniform. The redhead looked familiar. A slow smile that could have been easily mistaken as a leer spread across his face when he read her nametag.

"I'd stand up and salute, Sir," Waldrop said, sarcastically, "if you'd take these cuffs off."

"You wish," Steve said. "I'm Commander McGarrett. I have the honor of representing both the Navy and Hawaii Five-O. This is my associate, Dan Williams, and my yeoman, Petty Officer Patterson. You're under arrest for the murders of PFC Tami Wilson, MS2 Jennifer Weeks, and IC3 Roberta Paxton. Your turn, Officer Williams."

"CPO Donald Wayne Waldrop, you're under arrest for eight counts of murder in the first degree, including that of PFC Tami Wilson. I'd read off all the names of the others, only I doubt they'd mean anything to you. You have the right to remain silent, if you give up the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have one present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?"

Waldrop gave a short laugh. "You're kidding, right? You think I murdered those bitches? What a laugh!"

"I don't remember saying you were wanted for murdering anyone that crude term would apply to, just murder." Danny said, looking disgusted. "Do you understand your rights? I take that as a yes."

"We found your stash, Chief Waldrop." Steve said. "All those neat little plastic bags filled with your trophies; with the dates neatly written on them and with your fingerprints and DNA all over them. You can make your life a lot easier by owning up to what you did."

"Really? How long you been in, Commander? I bet when you enlisted in the Navy it was the real Navy with none of these whiny assed bitches on board."

The woman standing to Waldrop's left loosened the strap on her taser. Steve raised a hand in warning. "Chief Waldrop, you will not use that term to refer to women again. Is that understood?"

Waldrop scoffed. "I see that those pansy assed dry land sailors in DC got to you, Commander. You know as well as I do that the only thing a bitch on a ship is good for is pussy between ports. Ain't that right, sweetheart?" He was staring directly at Beverly. Her face so pale the freckles were standing out like stars in the night sky. "Ask your little 'yeoman' there. She'll tell you all about our little interlude in the shower room."

No one knew she could move that fast. She grabbed the taser from the holster of the nearest guard and thrust it into Waldrop's neck, hitting the trigger as she did. He convulsed as 50000 volts of EMD current hit him. "You bastard," she said. "I hope they hang you." She threw the taser on the table and ran from the room.

"Danno, go after her. Find out what in the hell is going on." Danny was already out the door.

"Keep those crazy bitches away from me!" Waldrop shouted when he'd recovered.

"You listen to me, Chief, and you listen good. You killed those women. You killed seven women on my Island that you thought no one cared about. Well, you were wrong. I care. And then you killed a nineteen year old army private because you thought she may have seen something she shouldn't have. I bet when we start digging into your past we're going to find you've got a long history of hurting women. That ends now. And personally, I don't give a damn how many times those women tase your sorry ass. As far as I'm concerned, you've had it coming for years now."

"You think?" Waldrop said. "I want a lawyer."

"You can get one when you get back to Honolulu."

"Maybe I won't want to talk then."

"Maybe I just drop you off outside the front gate and call the Singapore PD and let them know you're a suspect in the murder of two women here. Nice, law abiding country, Singapore. They cane you for vandalism. I wonder what they do for murder."

"You wouldn't."

"Really?" Steve said. "Try me and see what happens. You've got ten minutes to make up your mind. I'm going to get some fresh air."

* * *

Danny caught up with Beverly on the weather decks. She was standing at the rail, looking out over the harbor. "Beverly? Honey? You okay?" He could see her shoulders shaking and knew she was crying.

"Go away!" she said.

"Sorry, can't do that."

"Go away! Leave me alone!"

"Already told you, I can't do that." He gently placed his hands on her shoulders. She turned to face him, tears streaming down her face. "It's okay," he said. He wrapped her in his arms, holding her close as she cried. "You want to tell me about it?"

The only sounds were her horrible heart wrenchingly painful sobs. He had a feeling she'd been holding them back for years, and now they were finally out. He held her until they subsided. "He raped you, didn't he? You didn't report it because you were afraid. You don't have to be afraid anymore."

"Easy for you to say." She looked up at him, her face blotchy from crying.

"Is there someplace we can talk? Maybe get a something cold to drink?"

"Mess decks always open."

"Come on. I'll buy you a drink. We can talk. Or you can talk and I'll listen. You're going to have to talk to someone; it might as well be me."

She looked up into his azure blue eyes. _So calm,_ she thought, _so peaceful looking_. Maybe it was time. "Okay," she said softly, still choking on her tears. "This way, Officer Williams."

That was the start. From then on all she had to do was look into those clear blue eyes and she'd be lost.

* * *

The view from the bridge of the _Edmonds_ was spectacular. "Ever been on one of these newer ships, Commander?" Captain Shaw wanted to know. "Wasp-class amphibious assault ship built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi and commissioned in '92. We're carrying an entire Marine Corps air assault company. I've got over 2500 sailors and marines on board. She's forty thousand plus tons displacement and over 800 feet long. I never thought I'd get a ship this size."

"Your first command?"

"Yes. Some days I wonder if it's going to be my last. How about you, Commander? You ever want your own ship?"

"I got a better offer from the governor of Hawaii about twenty-five years ago. Or at least I thought so at the time. Some view you got here."

"You should see it at night on the open sea. Stars forever."

"Want to tell an old dinosaur like me what it's like having women on board? I never had the opportunity to go to sea with women sailors."

Shaw shrugged. "Same as with the men. Some good, some bad, some bloody damn stupid. It all depends. We get all kinds. Most of the crew's under thirty. You put that many healthy young bodies in close quarters, stuff is going to happen. Most of the time, it's handled maturely. Sometimes it isn't. That's when I have to step in. I don't tolerate that kind of bullshit. Male or female, you cross the line, you're out of here. I've had my eye on Waldrop since he came on board. There are enough letters in his file to send up a dozen red flags."

"He's gotten away with this way too long. Either because command covered it up or we just didn't know where to look. No more cover ups, Skipper. Not from Command or anywhere else. You're lucky. We're stopping him on your watch."

"I'm with you on that one, Commander. I'm going to spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have prevented the last two if I'd never let him off the ship at Pearl. You really weren't going to turn him over to the Singaporean authorities, were you?"

"Were you going to feed him to the sharks?"

"I see your point, Commander. Sometimes it's damned hard to play by the rules."

"That's why we have the rules. It separates us from the animals. Let's go rattle his cage some more."

* * *

Beverly was sitting across the table from Danny, an untouched Coke between them. He was holding both her hands to keep them from shaking.

"You need to tell me what happened," he said. "He can't hurt you anymore. There's no need to be afraid."

She looked up at him, her russet eyes red from crying. "You don't know what it's like, being afraid all the time. I thought I was over it. Guess I'm not as tough as I thought I was."

"Beverly, you are undoubtedly one of the toughest women I've ever met. And up until about half an hour ago, I would have sworn you were one of the most confident. You can't let this creep win."

"Would you believe me if I told you I wasn't sure it was him until he admitted it? I had my suspicions, I just never had proof."

"Beverly, honey, I believe you. And so will Commander McGarrett. You need to tell me the rest of the story. It's never going to get any better until you do."

"I don't want you to think I'm stupid. Or that it was my fault. Or that I asked for it. That's the typical line the Navy takes. I'd seen it before. I wasn't going that route. That's why I didn't report it."

"Beverly that was then, this is now," he said, patiently. _Sometimes_ , he thought, _being a cop was the_ _worse job in the world_ , only the women sitting across from him wasn't a stranger making a police report but someone he was starting to have some very strong feelings for. "You don't have to press charges if you don't want to. You just need to tell me what happened. I truly cannot stand seeing you in this much pain and it might just help to talk about it."

"This is going to give me nightmares."

"If it does, then I'll be there, tonight and however many more nights it takes for them to go away."

"You are one of the good ones," she said softly. "Promise you won't think I'm a terrible person?"

"That could never happen."

"I thought it was almost over. The war was done and we were on our way back to San Diego when that damned volcano blew in the Philippines. We got stuck doing relief work. All I could think about was another month on that damned boat and I was being reassigned to Coronado and would never have to see that crew again. So much for wishful thinking." She paused to take a deep breath. "Cargo was working sixteen hour days, shifting relief supplies. I finally got off work, hot, sticky, and covered with ash. It was nearly midnight. All I wanted was a shower and some serious rack time before it started all over the next morning."

A stray lock of red hair had come loose from the bun at the back of her neck. Without thinking he reached up and tucked it behind her ear, caressing her cheek as he did. She held his hand to her cheek for a few seconds, and even managed a small, weak smile. "I should have known better," she said. "I should have waited until someone else could go down with me, only I was hot and tired and filthy and all I wanted was to get clean. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the shower room. I got undressed and had just turned on the taps when the lights went out. No big deal, the lights were always going out in women's berthing. I turned around to go get a flashlight out of my bag and there he was."

"It was so dark I couldn't see a damned thing. That didn't stop me from trying to fight back. He beat me until I was unconscious. One of the few female chiefs on ship found me. She got me to sick bay. I had a concussion and a broken collar bone and assorted cuts and bruises. There was one female corpsman down there who tried to get me to report it. She even did a rape kit and gave me a shot to start my period. Bet you didn't know Navy ships carried rape kits and emergency contraceptives. Well, neither did I. Makes you wonder why they need the damn things. Command decided I had 'slipped' in the shower when the lights went out."

"Is that what it says in your medical records? That you slipped in the shower?"

"You're kidding, right? There are no records of it ever happening. My medical records from the _Andromeda_ have all managed to disappear into the ether. Three days in sick bay and no mention of it anywhere in my medical records."

"Could you get the woman who found you and the corpsman to corroborate your story?"

"You don't believe me?" she asked. He could see the panic in her eyes.

"No, honey, I do. I just want this creep put away forever. I'm all for throwing everything we can at him and seeing what sticks. That's what Commander McGarrett wants to do."

"And what does Dan Williams want to do?"

"Something that would get him fired for excessive force."

"I don't think I'm worth that."

"You will never, ever let me hear you say that again. Now, go wash your face and comb your hair. You're a beautiful mess but a mess all the same and you don't want that monster thinking you let him do this to you. I need to get you back to Commander McGarrett before he puts out a ship wide APB on you." He stood up, pulling her into his arms as he did. "You are braver and stronger than you think. It's going to be alright. I promise." He kissed her softly, hoping that it was okay while she was on duty and in uniform and not really caring if it wasn't.

* * *

Danny and Beverly met up with Steve and Captain Shaw outside the captain's ready room.

"Yeoman Patterson," Steve asked, "where did you learn to move that fast?"

"Sir, when you work cargo you learn to move fast or you end up a greasy spot on the deck. I'm sorry, sir, I should have been more professional."

"It's okay, honey," he said. "Is there anything else I should know?"

She looked up at Danny and nodded.

"Add first degree sexual assault to Waldrop's charge sheet." Danny said.

"Is this what you want?" Steve asked, looking down at Beverly.

"Yes, sir. I should have done it a long time ago, only I was afraid. Not any more."

"Well, then, let's get this over with. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am ready to go home."

Waldrop was still shackled to the chair, looking more disgruntled by the minute.

"When do I get out of here?" he demanded.

"Depends on where you'd like to go." Steve was in no mood for arguments. "You can co-operate with me, or I can call the Singaporean authorities. At this point, I don't care where you go to jail, as long as you're off the streets and out of the Navy."

"And if I co-operate?"

"Hawaii doesn't have the death penalty. You'd never see daylight again, but you'd still be alive."

"When do we get out of here?" _What the hell_ , Waldrop thought, _he ain't got jack_ _that a good lawyer won't be able to get thrown out of court_. He'd string out this whole trial thing until he was ready to retire and then waltz out with an apology and half pay. Then he'd go hunting for those crazy bitches with the tasers and give them a taste of their own medicine.

"As soon as I can arrange transport back to Honolulu. Captain Shaw, do you have a stun belt on this boat?"

"I'm not sure, Commander, however I do believe I can arrange one."

"Thank you, sir. I want one welded to his mangy hide."

"Now wait a minute," Waldrop started.

"Shut up, Chief," Steve said, "You will do exactly what I tell you when I tell you to do it or I swear you'll volunteer for the death penalty just to get away from me. You will also refrain from using any derogatory language directed at any female within my hearing. Do I make myself clear?"

"Damned Navy is going to the dogs. The Army started this crap; training women with men, making them think they could be soldiers. Ha! The only place a damned women needs to be is in the kitchen or the bedroom. That's why I didn't join the army, couldn't stand the thought of having to deal with a bunch of split tails thinking they were soldiers."

Steve had a sudden vision of the scars that Maggie would carry for the rest of her life and the memories that would go with them. He reached across the table, grabbing Waldrop by the collar and jerking him up as far as the shackles allowed. "I have had it with you," he said through clenched teeth. "I don't care if they are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or the damned Coast Guard; you will not refer to women in uniform as anything but what they are. They are soldiers and sailors and they have earned the right to wear the uniform that you are disgracing. Take him back to the brig before I forget everything Annapolis taught me about being an officer and a gentleman." He let go of Waldrop, dropping him into the chair.

"Captain, we've intruded on your time long enough this morning. Thank you for your co-operation."

Captain Shaw walked with them to the gangway. "Anything else I can do for you, Commander?"

"Better ask what I can do for you, sir. I'm going to arrange transport and security to get Waldrop off your ship as soon as possible. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm hoping to have him out of here tomorrow morning."

"He'll be in lock up, waiting for you," Shaw said.

"Next time you're in Honolulu, give me a call. Be nice to have someone to exchange sea stories with."

"You got it, Commander." Steve and Beverly saluted as they left the ship. Danny settled for a handshake.

"Now what's on the agenda, Steve?" Danny asked when they were back on the dock.

"Now I go arrange transport out of here. We'll be flying Navy again. With luck we will be out of here tomorrow morning. I can get this done on my own. Why don't you and Yeoman Patterson go sightseeing?"

"You sure?" Danny asked. "How about it, Beverly? Want to show me around?"

"As soon as I can get out of this uniform," she said. She took his arm as they headed off in the direction of the VOQ.

Steve watched them go, half smiling, wondering if Danny had any idea what he was getting himself into. He turned to look out over the harbor. Sometimes he really did miss the sea. He took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of salt water and engine oil. Some things never changed. Gulls screamed overhead and there was the distant rumble of marine engines. _I want to go home and for once there is going to be someone there waiting for me_. With that thought in mind he walked across to pier to the NCIS office.

* * *

Danny unlocked the door to the suite at the VOQ. Beverly gave him an odd little half smile as he did.

"I call dibs on the shower," she said.

"Okay by me," he said.

She disappeared into the bathroom. Five minutes later a towel wrapped Beverly opened the door. "Well," she said, "you joining me or not?"

For some things he didn't need a second invitation.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Eleven

At eight o'clock the next morning Steve, Danny, and Beverly stood on the tarmac by the ramp of a C-5A Galaxy. The plane was originally bound non-stop for Hawaii out of Saudi Arabia with two companies of Marines on board. Steve had the flight diverted to Singapore to pick up their prisoner. Now they were watching as the shore patrol van pulled up and Waldrop was escorted out by SP and NCIS officers. Waldrop's trophy locker had been carefully crated and stenciled and was being loaded onto the plane.

Waldrop wasn't happy. It was hot and humid and the damned van didn't have air conditioning, or if it had, the SP's hadn't bothered to turn it on. Then there was the matter of the stun belt, which could be triggered remotely, and the woman who was carrying the remote, a female CPO who must have had permanent PMS.

The OIC of the group saluted and gave Steve the paperwork for transferring the prisoner. Steve retuned the salute, signed the papers, and gave a copy back to the OIC. Then he addressed Waldrop.

"Chief Waldrop, you are being extradited to the state of Hawaii for eight counts of first degree murder. You will also face an enquiry by the Navy in the deaths of IC3 Roberta Paxton, MS2 Jennifer Weeks, and PFC Tami Wilson, and the sexual assault of Yeoman Beverly Patterson. You will remain shackled while in flight. If you fail to carry out any order given to you by me or a member of my staff or the flight crew, you will regret it. Do I make myself clear?"

"What if I have to go to the head?" Waldrop said sarcastically.

"You will be escorted. And before you think of doing anything stupid, please remember this plane is also carrying two companies of Marine Corps infantry who are extremely pissed off about their flight home being diverted and delayed to pick your ass up."

Waldrop started to say something, but then he saw that Patterson had been given the remote to the stun belt. The look on her face said it all. He shut up.

The VIP section of the C-5 wasn't as nice as the one on the 141. Waldrop was shackled to the middle seat of the third row, flanked by SP's. Steve opted for an aisle seat in the first row for the extra leg room. Beverly and Danny were in the row across the aisle. She was still pale, but looked calmer, and as far as Danny was concerned, extremely sexy in the Navy Blues pants uniform. He hadn't let go of her hand since they boarded.

"I'm not use to riding in the front," she said, "usually I'm in the back loading the cargo."

"Quit stressing. Sit back and let someone else worry about the cargo." He raised her hand to his lips and gently kissed it. "Did I tell you that you are one very special lady?"

"That may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," she said, looking into his calm blue eyes.

"You obviously have been hanging around the wrong people." The big jet started vibrating as the engines fired up. The plane had refueled at Singapore and now it was nonstop to Hawaii. "When we get back on the Rock, would you be interested in, oh, I don't know, going home with me?"

She smiled up at him, "I think that could be arranged, Officer Williams."

 _She is thirteen years younger than I am, but only in numbers. It's like she's skipped an entire decade. Maybe it was the war. Maybe it was everything else. All I know is that she makes happier than I've been in a long time. More content. I guess no more teasing Steve about being too old for that little Army sergeant._ He glanced over at his boss. Steve had been out of sorts all morning. He supposed that spending six hours battling red tape and bureaucracy to get a C-5 diverted would do that to anyone. Not to mention the fact the governor wasn't going to be to pleased when he found out that in order to placate two companies of annoyed Marine Corps infantry they had been promised a barbecue with all they beer they could drink, courtesy of Five-O. That was one meeting he would be most happy to skip.

Steve leaned back in his seat, lost in thought. Their flight would arrive at around two that afternoon, Honolulu time. Maggie would be at work. He'd called her earlier, only to get her voicemail. He'd left a brief message with the ETA, hoping that she could get away long enough to meet him. After he had finally finished arranging transport, he and a very satisfied looking Dan Williams and a very happy Beverly had gone out for dinner and shopping in the retail district of downtown Singapore. He really wasn't sure what he was looking for until he found an opal and silver pendent with matching earrings and a pair of matching opal studs to go with them, all the pieces, the jeweler had assured them, cut from the same stone.

"Why two sets of earrings?" Danny had asked.

"Double pierced ears, silly," Beverly had said. Danny had just bought her the jade bracelet she'd been admiring. It was the nicest jewelry anyone had ever given her and way out of her price range. She couldn't wait to get back to the VOQ to thank him properly.

Out came Steve's American Express. Now the jewelry was stashed in his carry on and he couldn't wait to see her wearing it. The jeweler had delivered the same caution he'd once heard from Maggie. Opals are bad luck unless they are your birthstone and given to you by your true love. Danny had raised an eyebrow over that one. Steve didn't think there would be a problem. There was no law anywhere that said you couldn't have two in one lifetime.

The big jet lumbered down the runway, gaining speed for takeoff and then began its ascent into the blue skies over the Pacific. The estimated flight time would be around 15 hours, depending on the winds aloft. Steve didn't care. He was going home.

* * *

Master Sergeant John Hardin was pissed off beyond all reason. He would have dearly loved to take a swing at the big Hawaiian cop glowering at him, only common sense told him that would be a near fatal mistake.

The day before the CO had appeared at his hospital bedside, interrupting his plans for revenge against the stupid twat responsible for his bruised and swollen testicles, accusing him of being a liar and worse. He had been relieved of duty as first sergeant and told he would be leaving the Islands as soon as transportation could be arranged. Then he learned he was being reassigned to

* * *

an artillery unit at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. A unit, the CO assured him, that had no females whatsoever assigned to it.

"You don't know how lucky you are," Colonel Dale had told him. "If Sgt Alden had wanted to press charges against you for assault, you'd be in the stockade. As it is, she's just happy to never have to see you again."

"That sawed off half sized cunt is lying! I never touched her!"

"She's got bruises and a torn uniform that says otherwise. I've suggested mental evaluation when you get stateside. If you are wise, you'll take medical retirement. And you will not refer to any female in that manner again. Understood? There are two gentlemen from HPD outside your door to ensure your safety. Do not piss them off. Sgt Alden is thought of rather highly by certain members of the state police and it would not go well for you. You will be escorted to your plane and if you know what's good for you, you will never set foot on this Island again."

True to his word, Kono escorted Hardin onto the United flight, flashing his badge at the confused look the steward was giving him. He made sure Hardin was in his seat in coach before issuing his final warning. "You ever show your face on this Rock again, brudah, and you gone be one sorry haole. Enjoy your flight."

Kono exited the plane and stood at the gate, watching, as it headed down the taxiway for takeoff. That done, he checked his watch. The plane from Singapore was due to land in two hours. He had called the Little _Menehune_ earlier to make sure she knew the arrival time. Instinct told him the boss was going want to see that little lady as soon as he landed.

* * *

Beverly had raised the armrests between the seats and was now exhibiting the cargo handler's ability to sleep just about anywhere. She was curled up across two seats with her head resting in Danny's lap. Danny wasn't exactly asleep or awake, just off somewhere in a contented haze. Steve didn't want to disturb either of them. However, he did need to speak to his second in command.

"Danno," he said, giving him a gentle shake. "We need to talk." He motioned toward the back of the cabin.

"It's okay, hon," he reassured Beverly. "Just need to talk to the boss. I'll be right back." Danny knew that she didn't like being in close proximity of Waldrop, even when he was securely shackled to his seat and guarded by a contingent of no nonsense SP's.

They sat down on opposite sides of the aisle on the last row of seats. "What's up?" Danny asked.

"You really like that girl, don't you?"

"Yes," Danny said, "a lot, in fact. Why?"

"She's going to need you real soon. Yesterday I had a long conversation with the Judge Advocate. Unless she can produce witnesses to back up her rape claim against Waldrop, the charges will be dismissed."

Danny felt the blood drain from his face. "No way. It's bad enough she's had to relive the whole damned nightmare, now you're telling me the charges are going to be dropped."

"Believe me it isn't my idea. You know how hard it is to prove aggravated rape in a civilian court. Try it with a military tribunal. So far there isn't a shred of physical evidence anywhere. Waldrop's lawyer is going to tear her apart on the stand. _And furthermore he can get away with it!_ The deck's stacked against any female bringing a rape charge against another service member. It's the dark ages all over again. They'll bring up every bit of her past, every relationship she's ever had, and if they can find them, subpoena every man she's ever slept with, including you."

"No way in hell. No judge is going to allow that."

"That only works in civilian courts. This is different. The rules haven't changed since the '40's when the WAVES came on duty. It's not fair, it's horrible, and unfortunately, for now, that's the way it is and it's enough to make you sick."

"Is that what's been bothering you since yesterday? Why didn't you say something last night?"

"Last night she was happy. I don't think she's had a whole lot to be happy about in her life. I didn't want to spoil it."

"When am I supposed to tell her that he's getting away with raping her? After we land? How about neither of us tells her and let the judge advocate spring it on her? Let's us off the hook. This really fucking sucks."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm beginning to wonder what the hell I've been doing in the damned Navy for the last thirty years. I had no idea it was this bad. I wonder how many other officers were this blissfully ignorant of what's going on around them."

"You planning on doing anything about it?"

"You can bet on it. I don't know if it'll do any good, but I'm going to give it a shot. I've got Maggie and Lu running down women from both the _North Star_ and the _Andromeda_. I'm going to find the two women who helped her after Waldrop beat her so badly she ended up in sick bay. Chances are at least one of them has retired by now. Retirees are a kind of a special breed. They don't give a damn who they piss off. At least that's what I'm counting on."

"Or you could give me five minutes alone with the bastard."

"You know it doesn't work that way. Sometimes I wish it did."

"Which leads me back to my original question: when do I tell her?"

"Not yet. You wait. It takes a while to get a court martial together. In the meantime there's something I'm working on now. It won't make up for what happened, but with a little luck, it will be the beginning of making things better."

"Better for whom? Doesn't sound like it's going to be any better for Beverly."

"Just wait, little brudah. You take care of that girl."

Danny nodded. "That's the easy part."

"Always is, brudah, always is."

* * *

The pilot came over the intercom, announcing they were beginning their descent into Hawaiian airspace, bringing a round of cheering from the Marines in the back of the plane that only got louder as the wheels hit the ground and the big plane began slowing for its long roll back to the terminal. Steve had seen enough of these homecomings on news reports to know that most of the troops had family waiting for them on the tarmac. He switched on his cell phone as the plane slowed to a stop. Kono rang through about thirty seconds later.

"We ready for you, boss. We got 'da van and the SWAT teams standing by in case your boy wants to get stupid. They takin' him to lockup on Pearl. 'Dat what you wanted?"

"Lock up on Pearl means no bond. I'm waiting until the Marines deplane before we move him. Give us about half an hour. Anything else happening that I need to know about?"

"Not much. Got something to show you later. I already took care of it so no problem."

That wasn't the answer he wanted. He ended the call, mostly because the volume of the cheering from the back of the plane had intensified when the ramp had went down making conversation next to impossible. The Marines were noisily deplaning to meet the families they hadn't seen for the last six months.

The cabin door opened, letting in sunshine and fresh air. He stood up, stretching, muscles stiff and aching from the long flight. _I need a shower and a shave and about eighteen hours of uninterrupted sleep, but most of all I need my Little Menehune._

Waldrop was being unshackled from his seat. The SP holding the remote to the stun belt cautioned him about making any sudden moves.

"Chief Waldrop, you are being transported to the Navy brig on Pearl. I am going to advise you one more time about doing anything stupid. There's a SWAT team standing by and they won't hesitate to shoot to kill."

"Wouldn't that be convenient," Waldrop said, sarcastically. "You can all kiss my navy ass, you and your SWAT team and every other cu…."

He didn't get to finish. The female SP's holding the remote hit the button that activated the stun belt.

"Oops," she said. "My finger slipped. Sorry, sir."

"A little more care next time, Chief. Danno, Yeoman Patterson, Kono says they're ready for us. Let's go."

As soon as he had recovered enough to stand, Waldrop was hustled down the steps and into the awaiting van. At the foot of the ramp a tall woman in an army pants uniform with first sergeants chevrons on the collar of her green shirt was shooting pictures of everything. Steve looked around hopefully. Where Lu was Maggie usually wasn't far behind. Lu saluted as they came down the ramp. "Good to see you Commander, Officer Williams. That fine hunk of Hawaiian is waiting for you by the terminal, parked in a tow away zone. Hold still, I need a picture of the three of you, and an introduction to your sailor friend."

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little distracted. It's been a long trip and thank god it's almost over. Sgt Yablanski, this is Yeoman Beverly Patterson. She's been very helpful the last few days. Where is she?" Steve asked when Lu was done.

Lu didn't have to ask who 'she' was. "Somewhere out there in that crowd, talking to a female Marine who just spent the last six months away from her husband and two kids," Lu said. "I think she needed to do something to keep from having a nervous hissy fit waiting for you to deplane. Good luck finding her half sized fanny in that mob."

Later, he would have sworn it was magic. The crowd parted, and a small curvy figure in a green Army uniform stepped into a sunbeam. To him, she was glowing. She halted about two feet from him, went to attention, and saluted.

"Welcome home, Commander," she said in that soft drawling voice he'd been dreaming about.

He returned the salute. Her eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, that small naughty half smile he'd came to know so well playing across her lips. His mind flashed back to the words he'd heard years ago from a master chief after an intense firefight.

"Fuck protocol," he said, and then she was in is arms and up on her toes and her arms were around his neck and her lips met his as he kissed her. He smiled down at her when they finally broke apart.

"You feel so good!" She said as she rested her head against his chest, listening to beat of his heart as held her.

"I have something for you." He dug into his jacket pocket until he found the key ring he should have given her before he'd left. "I have to go by headquarters for a while. I don't know how long I'll be there but there's nothing I'd like better than to come home and find you waiting in my bed."

"Really, Commander?" she asked, her voice taking on a mischievous tone, "Any instructions as per uniform requirements?" She pulled his head down to kiss him again.

Neither of them heard Kono and Chin Ho approach. "Hey, Boss, Miss _Menehune,_ he on his way to the brig. Who 'dat with Danny?"

"I was wondering where everyone had gotten off to," Danny said. "Beverly, that big Hawaiian is Kono, the other officer is Chin Ho Kelly also from Five-O, you've already met Master Sergeant Yablanski, and that little sergeant that Commander McGarrett is holding onto is Sergeant First Class Alden. Everyone, this is Petty Officer Beverly Patterson."

They shook hands all around. Beverly looked a little overwhelmed by the presence of more police officers and the two senior female NCO's. She supposed that tomorrow morning she'd be back loading cargo. She held onto Danny's hand, wondering what would happen next.

"Yeoman Patterson," Steve said, "you will report to my office at the Iolani Palace tomorrow morning. I suspect that Officer Williams will be happy to show you the way."

"I thought I was going back to cargo, sir."

"Your orders are 'for the duration', Yeoman. This case isn't over yet. I'll see you in the morning. Danno, make sure she gets some real rest, please."

"No problem, Steve. Come on, Yeoman Patterson, you can give me a ride home." They went off to find Beverly's car.

"Did we miss something?" Chin asked after they had gone.

"I'll fill you in later," Steve said. He took a folded sheet of paper from his jacket. "Maggie, honey, here's your press release for tomorrow's paper. I'm calling a press conference for tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to need you and Lu, and the Thompson Twins to attend, as well as Colonel Dale, and if you can't avoid it, the first sergeant. Its past time to get this thing wrapped up."

Maggie read over the release. Colonel Dale was going to be one very happy CO. "Lu, did you get pictures of the prisoner? We're going to need one for the front page."

"At least a dozen. Hey, big, tall, and Hawaiian there, I need the correct spelling of your name please. I don't know what's worse for us Midwesterner's, Hawaiian names or Cajun. And don't worry about the first sergeant; she'll be there with bells on."

Kono gave her the correct spelling and added his phone number in case she needed him for anything else. Steve was still holding on to Maggie as if he were afraid she'd disappear if he ever let go. Danny had been grinning like a Cheshire cat when he had left with the young female sailor. That big blonde sergeant may have been a few years older than he was, but she was also built with some very generous and interesting curves. Well, Five-O had always co-operated with the military and he was more than willing to help further the spirit of cooperation.

Two SP's came over, carrying a crate between them. After Steve had signed for it, Kono stashed it in the trunk of the big Mercury.

"What's in the box, boss?" he asked.

"Nightmares, Kono, the worse ones possible. Get it to the lab immediately."

"When do I get the rest of the story, Commander?" Maggie asked.

Steve looked down at the small woman in the green uniform. A _Stars and Stripes_ press pass was clipped to the lapel of her jacket. "Always the reporter," he said, smiling. "What's today anyway?"

"Thursday, Boss," Kono said. "All them time zones and datelines will mess with your head."

"You're right there," he said, bending down to kiss Maggie's cheek and whisper a something in her ear that caused her to blush furiously. "You get the full story in time for the Sunday edition. I've got to go, sweetie. I'll see you when I get home. I do like the way that sounds."

* * *

Danny snuggled closer to the women lying next to him, burying his face in her soft wavy hair. "How's my girl?" he asked, luxuriating in the feel of her warm smooth skin.

"Better than she's been in a very long time," Beverly said, turning over and resting her head on his shoulder. _He's older,_ she thought, _and more patient, and good looking, and so damned gentle._ She ran her fingers lightly over the muscles of his chest and shoulders, trailing down his abdomen to the top of his thigh.

"I'm supposed to be making sure you get some rest," he said, as nerve endings started tingling at her touch. "You keep that up; it's not going to happen."

Very softly, she kissed his cheek, running her fingers through his sun bleached curls as she did. "Thank you," she whispered softly.

"You're welcome, only could you tell me for what?"

"I didn't know it could be like this."

Danny tightened his arms around her, relishing the warmth of her bare skin against his. Her remark would have been more flattering if he didn't know how painfully truthful it was. She had married right out of high school to a man with a bad temper who thought all his problems could be solved with his fists. She'd put up with it for two years, until the day she told him she was pregnant. He'd beaten her so badly she'd lost the baby and had spent over a week in ICU. After that she'd stayed at a battered women's shelter in Mobile until she recovered enough to pass the Navy physical. She had wanted to get as far away from Alabama and her abusive ex-husband as she could, and the Navy had promised to show her the world. That was how she'd ended up on the _Andromeda_ and in the slimy hands of one CPO Donald Wayne Waldrop. He hadn't known any of that until they were both in the shower at the VOQ in Singapore. He'd been standing behind her, gently sliding his hands over her soapy body, as if to memorize her curves. He had just reached her breasts, loving the way their firm weight felt in the palms of his hands when she stiffened and started crying.

"Beverly, honey, what's wrong?" he'd asked.

That's when she'd told him everything, the water from the shower washing away her tears. "I talk a good game, and that's all it is. Talk."

"Does this mean that if I'd said yes to your invitation to join the mile high club…"

"I would have spent the rest of the flight locked in the bathroom."

He turned off the water and got out the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist and held another out for her. "It's just that I've never liked … could never… oh, god, Danny, there must be something wrong with me, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"For what?" he asked as he wrapped her in soft white cotton. "Listen to me. None of what you told me is your fault. You're just frightened, is all. I promise; you're safe. I'm not going to let anyone or anything else hurt you. And that includes me."

She had looked up into those startlingly blue eyes. "I know," she said in that soft drawling voice that made ever molecule of male hormone in his body sit up and take notice. She wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on her toes to kiss him. "I don't want to disappoint you," she had said when they finally came up for air.

"You won't, honey." He picked her up then, and carried her into the next room, smiling a bit when he saw that she'd already turned down the covers. He had spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the lush country that was Beverly; proving to her that love doesn't have to hurt and that really good sex has its own healing powers.

That was Singapore, now, back home in the Islands, she was cradled safely in his arms and he felt like the king of the world. _Uniforms and southern drawls_ , he thought, _what a combination._ "Beverly," he said softly, "you have got to be the most extraordinary women I have ever met. If I'm not very, very careful, I may just fall in love with you."

She sat up, giving him a small half smile that went straight to his loins as she straddled him, her palms flat against his skin as she massaged his shoulders. "Would that be so bad?" she asked.

"I think that would be pretty damned good," he said as coherent thought fled and all he could think about was making her happy.

* * *

It was late and Kono was giving Steve a ride home. Steve had spent most of the evening on the phone with various police agencies and the FBI, alerting them to Waldrop's arrest and the contents of his trophy locker. Then he'd called Admiral Donner asking, no, he had to admit to himself, demanding that the process to have the cause of death for IC3 Paxton and MS2 Weeks changed from suicide to murder be started immediately, thus clearing the way for their families to collect the benefits the women had earned by serving. _One step at a time_ , he thought, _and we slowly change the world_. He had also informed the Admiral that he'd need the services of Yeoman Patterson for at least another month, and then the two of them had a long discussion about her possible future.

"Hey, Boss," Kono said, "you need to take a look at that folder before you get home." Kono had put off showing Steve the incident report from the assault by the former first sergeant. Steve switched on the dome light and opened the folder. "Look, Boss, before you go any further, she wasn't hurt bad. Just some bruises, is all." Kono could see Steve's jaw clench and that his face had gone very pale. When he finally did speak, it was with the calm, even tone that usually meant trouble was on the way.

"Where is he?"

"On a plane to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. I escorted him on board myself, to make sure he got off the Island in one piece. The plane left about two hours before you got back."

The file included a couple of Polaroid shots of the bruises on Maggie's arm and hip. "She didn't want to press charges?"

"No, she just wanted him out of here before you got back. She was afraid you'd be upset. Colonel Dale thought it was a good idea. I tink the colonel been wantin' to get rid of him for a while now. There's gonna be a surprise waiting for him when he gets to Oklahoma. He's going to the psyche ward."

"Afraid I would be upset is an understatement. All this happened Monday and no one bothered to tell me until five minutes ago?"

"Wouldn't nuthin' you could a done on the other side of the world. Anyway, you ought to be proud of that little woman. She kneed that creep in the nuts so hard he'll be coughin' up pubic hair for the next six months."

Steve read through the list of injuries Hardin had sustained: badly bruised testicles, gash on the side of his head inflicted by the impact of a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard that required twelve stitches to close, and a burst eardrum from being kicked in the ear by a size five military pump.

"That's some woman," he said, smiling. "Remind me never to make her mad."

Kono pulled up into the driveway next to the little yellow Mustang and popped the trunk for Steve to get his suitcase. "Look like she home already. See you in the morning, Brudah."

"Mahalo, Brudah," Steve said. "If I'm late coming in tomorrow, don't call."

Kono held up one hand, thumb and little finger extended in the universal Hawaiian gesture of good night, good luck, and you got it all rolled into one.

* * *

Steve glanced at his watch. It was nearly midnight. He wondered if Maggie was sleeping. She had left a light on in the living room, and, he couldn't help but notice, an advance copy of tomorrow's _Stars and Stripes_ on the coffee table. Featured prominently on the front page was a picture of Waldrop being led off the plane in chains. The headline read "Suspected Serial Killer Returned to Hawaii". The words 'alleged' and 'suspected' were used to describe Waldrop and his activities and a brief statement that the arrest was made possible by the cooperation of several independent agencies, including NCIS, ASA, HPD, and Hawaii Five-O plus a note of apology and thanks to the 5th Marine Recon for allowing their plane to be diverted and delayed for prisoner transport. More pictures were on the next page, including those of the seven murdered prostitutes and the three servicewomen. Maggie and Lu had done their homework well.

He opened his suitcase to remove the small box wrapped in silver paper and tied with a red bow. For a big man, he could move cat quiet. Maggie was a small shape under the covers, her hair spread across the pillows. She had left the sliding doors open and a soft breeze carrying the scent of the ocean stirred the curtains. He quickly and quietly emptied his pockets onto the dresser, stripped off the uniform he'd been wearing way too long, and headed for the shower.

She stirred as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Wake up, my Little _Menehune,_ " he said softly. She sat up quickly, instantly awake, the panic attack that threatened dissipating as he drew her to his chest, his arms tightening around her. "Easy, baby, easy, it's just me. I'm home." He said, delighted to see that she was nude and then her body was pressed against his and his mouth was on hers and the rest of the world could have imploded and neither of them would have cared. All he wanted was to feel her body against his, the warmth of her skin, the scent of her perfume, the curve of hip and thigh and firm half globes of her breasts that fit so beautifully in the palm of his hands and those soft secret places that only lovers know, the places that responded so readily to his touch. Later, there would be time for the sweet games that lover's play, later, when the need wasn't so urgent. For now they were each hungry for the other's touch, desire burning through their blood like liquid fire.

Much later, in the golden afterglow of lovemaking, she whispered so softly that he almost didn't hear. "I love you, Commander."

"I love you, my Little _Menehune._ " he said as he held her. There were so many paths in this world. He'd be forever thankful for the one that had led her to Hawaii and into his arms.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Twelve

When he awoke the next morning she was gone and he was late for work. She'd left a note on the dresser. "You looked so peaceful I let you sleep. I called your office to let them know you'd be late. Off to the airport to retrieve the Thompson's. See you this afternoon, Love you."

He got to his office at ten minutes to nine, later than he'd been in years. The rest of the crew was already there, including Yeoman Patterson.

"Morning, Boss," Kono said, grinning. "You did say if you were late no one was suppose to call. Besides, Little Miss _Menehune_ called and said you needed to sleep."

 _Now my staff is taking orders from her_ , he thought, _she's a keeper_ , but said aloud. "Good morning. I hope there's coffee."

"Just made some fresh," Jenny said.

"You are a love, thank you. Jenny, I see you've met Yeoman Patterson already. She's going to be working with us for a few weeks."

Jenny nodded. She had taken an immediate liking to the young sailor. It was always good to see new blood at Five-O. The next few weeks were going to be interesting.

Beverly wasn't sure what her job was supposed to be. She'd enjoyed the easy banter between the detectives before Commander McGarrett had made it in. She had a feeling she was going to like working with the crew.

"Jenny, let's get Yeoman Patterson started with something easy. Show her what it takes to get a press conference set up."

"Commander," Beverly said, "Please, can everyone call me Beverly? That is if it's okay with you."

"Beverly it is, then. Any calls, Jenny?"

"A bunch, sir, including one from your favorite television news reporter, Mr. Meyers. He's demanding to know how the _Stars and Stripes_ got an exclusive." She gave Steve a handful of message forms.

"Maybe because the reporters from the _Stars and Stripes_ aren't a bunch of no talent hacks with delusions of their own importance?"

Danny was trying to hide a smirk. "Wasn't he barred from the capitol press corps last year?"

"He got reinstated, against my advice. Anything else?"

"Che called from the lab with a follow up. The hair found in Waldrop's vehicle was a match for PFC Wilson. He's still working with the rest of the stuff."

"You and Kono get on that. Press conference is at three. See if Che's got anything new. I've got some calls to make."

The first one was to Maggie. "Good morning, sweetie," he said when she answered her phone. He could hear the flight announcements in the background. "Still at the airport waiting for the Twins?"

"Yes, their flight was delayed. There's a nasty storm moving in from the north east they had to fly around. Should be hitting here around six tonight. Their plane landed about fifteen minutes ago and I'm waiting for them to deplane. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, but don't ever do that to me again."

"Let you sleep?"

"No, leave without saying goodbye."

"But I did. I kissed you and covered you back up. You muttered something I couldn't understand, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Baby, you were exhausted."

"I didn't realize I was that tired. Next time wake me up. This is important."

"Yes, Commander, you can tell me why later. I love you. And here come the Twins. What time do we need to be at your office?"

"Around one. I'll see you then. Love you, too."

"Steve," she said.

"Yes."

"Last night was fantastic. Got to go. Love you!" she closed her phone with a snap blushing to the roots of her hair.

 _That is a good way to start a morning_ , he thought. _Now who's next?_

* * *

Che had the contents of Waldrop's locker spread out on a large square table. Danny shuddered involuntarily looking at the plastic bags.

"How many you got there, Che?"

"Thirty-four. I counted them twice myself to make sure." Che looked pale. He knew that each of the benign looking plastic ziplock bags represented the death of a young woman. He'd already thrown up his breakfast and it looked like lunch wasn't going to be an option. "The oldest one is from December of 1979, the last one from that young soldier. I checked the dates against the almanac. Every one of them correlates with the full moon."

"So 'dat's what the Big Man meant when he said it was a box full of nightmares. Thirty-four, you said?"

"Yes, eight from here in Hawaii, two from Navy ships, and twenty-four more we're trying to track down now. That's the reason I called. I found a set of Navy dogtags from June of '91. Do you have another missing sailor?"

Danny shook his head, "Not that I know of. Let me have those. I'll put in a call to the Navy and see what I can find out."

Che handed Danny the clear plastic bag. He didn't have to open the bag to read the name on the tags. His face paled. Dark lights flashed behind his eyes. Kono caught his shoulder to steady him.

"You okay, brudah?" the big Hawaiian wanted to know. "You look like you just seen a ghost."

"NO! Thank god, no ghost. Let's go!"

He was out the door in a shot. Kono had to run to keep up.

"You want to tell me what wrong, brudah?"

Danny didn't say anything. He couldn't for fear of breaking down. He screeched into the parking lot at Iolani, barely missing Steve's car as he did. He was out the door and up the steps in a flash. Kono followed, wondering if his friend needed to take a few stress days.

Steve came out of his office in time to see Danny burst through the door and cross the room in three strides. He caught Beverly up in a bear hug that was rougher than he had ever intended and was holding her so tightly she was afraid her ribs would break.

"Don't say anything, honey, just let me hold you," he whispered. "I had to know you were real."

"Danno," Steve said, looking at his second in command. "Would you mind cluing in the rest of us?"

Wordlessly, he passed the plastic bag over to Steve. On the chain with the tags was a class ring from Demopolis High School. Steve took the dogtags out of the bag. All that could be heard was the sharp intake of his breath as he read the name stamped on the tags: Beverly Elizabeth Patterson. He dropped the chain back into the bag. "You going to be alright, Danno?" he asked, laying a friendly hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"Yeah. I swear I just had the fright of my life."

"Would one of y'all mind telling me what the hell is going on." As much as she loved the attention Danny was giving her, she knew something wasn't right. His pulse was hammering so hard she could feel it and his face had been unnaturally pale when he'd burst through the door.

"Beverly," Steve said gently, handing her the plastic bag, "I believe these belong to you."

She felt as if she'd been kicked in the stomach as she took the bag. If Danny hadn't been holding her so tightly, she would have fallen. "Where did you get these? The last time I saw them… oh, my god," she whispered as she realized she was looking at a part of Waldrop's stash.

"Look at the date, Steve," Danny finally managed to get out. "Che checked it with the almanac. The moon was full that night, only I doubt if you could have seen it with all the volcanic ash that was in the atmosphere. Now we have to find that woman, Beverly. She saved your life."

"You two go get some fresh air," Steve said. "Kono, get this back to the lab. Jenny, get Admiral Donner on the phone for me, please. I'm adding attempted murder to Waldrop's charge sheet. Beverly, what was that woman's name?"

"All I know is CPO Knight. I'm not even sure what section she worked in."

"Chin, time to head back to the computers. Get the name and address of every female named Knight who served in the Navy during the Gulf War. Go ahead and make it any female named Knight who's served in the last twenty years."

"That could take a while, Boss."

"No one's done anything stupid that requires our expertise this morning so you've got all the time you need. Check for any sailor named Knight who put in for a name change. She could have gotten married since then. Then hit the VA in case she's retired. Find her. Priority one. And then get her here."

"Will do," Chin said, heading out the door. There was something sweet and innocent about that young sailor that reminded of his oldest daughter. He lit his pipe as he walked outside. Blasted computer geeks had this thing about smoking around their equipment. It was going to be a long morning.

Steve refilled his coffee mug and returned to his office. Jenny rang through with his call to Admiral Donner a few minutes later. The Admiral was thoroughly disgusted with Waldrop and the embarrassment he was causing the Navy.

"Damnit, McGarrett, this gets worse every time you call. I'm doing my best to get a court martial board expedited. The sooner this is over the better off we'll all be."

The Admiral had hung up soon after. Steve closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. He didn't want to admit to anyone how tired he was. All he wanted to do was snuggle up next to Maggie and forget about the rest of the world. A soft knock at the interrupted his thoughts. "Come in," he said.

A much calmer Danny came in, closing the door behind him. "Hey, you okay there, Steve?"

"I was about to ask you that same question. How's Beverly handling this?"

"Like a champ. She's doing better than I am. Steve, I swear it felt like I'd been kicked in the chest by a mule." He sat down in on of the high backed leather chairs facing Steve's desk. "All I could think about was how close that creep came to killing her and dumping her in the ocean. It was like he didn't even care. Like she was a broken doll to be used and tossed away. To him she wasn't even a person who could be hurt, just a thing."

"That, Danno, is what sets these killers apart from the rest of humanity. They don't see other people as people, but as things, and then we get called in to clean up the mess and try to make it unhappen."

"When I saw her name on those dogtags I lost all objectivity. It scared the hell out me to think how close I came to losing her before I'd even met her, if that makes any kind of sense."

"More than you think. You know Maggie got badly hurt during the Gulf War," Steve was staring off into the distance. "She didn't want me to see the scars. I still don't understand her reasoning. Somehow she'd gotten it into her head that she was damaged and the scars were an ugly turn off. The first time I saw them all I could think about was how close I came to never having met her at all."

Danny nodded. "Exactly. That's one special lady. So's Beverly. Steve, what are we suppose to do with them?"

"Love them for as long as they're willing to put up with us," Steve said. "And I'm hoping that's for a very long time. I've got a bunch of paperwork that needs to be done to get Waldrop in front of the grand jury. Get down to the computer lab and give Chin a hand with running down CPO Knight. I've got a feeling you're about to be up to your ears in computer printouts. If Jenny's done with her, take Beverly with you. It's time for her to see there are more ways to take down criminals than with legwork and firepower."

"You got it. Jenny's having food brought in. She says with all the people we're expecting up here for the press conference no one's going to have time for lunch. If we're lucky we'll get this wrapped up and be out of here before the storm hits."

"She's right there. Good idea, too. When was the last time you saw a reporter turn down free food?"

* * *

The press conference was over and the Five-O offices were crowded with reporters wolfing down free food and drinks and trying their best to pry more information out of the staff. It had been a successful conference, as far as those things go. The Attorney General flanked by Five-O, HPD, NCIS, and Provost Marshal officers, announced Waldrop's arrest. There was a round of thank you's for everyone, including the staff of the _Stars and Stripes_ for all their help. Beverly, once again in Navy Blues, stood next to Danny with the team from Five-O, convinced that as long as he was standing next to her, she could do anything. Maggie, Lu, and the Twins, all neatly dressed in their Class A uniforms, were not accustom to being on the opposite end of reporters questions. They let Colonel Dale do all the talking as Maggie did her best to hide behind anyone taller than she was.

Dark clouds were starting to roll in from the ocean and the wind started picking up as the conference ended. Most of the television reporters fled to their newsrooms to edit their video and prepare for the six o'clock news cycle. The print journalists weren't on such a tight deadline and were content to eat their way through the buffet and try to pick up any stray information they could. Maggie, who's dislike for crowds and noise could be extreme at times, had fielded one question too many from a twit named Meyers before excusing herself to hide in Steve's office. She was standing by an open window, watching the storm clouds gathering when he joined her a few minutes later.

"How's my pretty lady?" he asked, embracing her from behind. She leaned against him, feeling some of the tension in her back ebb.

"At the moment, a little overwhelmed. I'm sorry. There was way too much noise out there."

"No need to apologize. Come here." He picked her up and carried her to his desk chair, sitting down with her on his lap. "Did I tell you how much I love you today?" He kissed her slowly and gently.

"Maybe earlier," she said, when they finally broke apart, "but you can remind me all you want." She had no idea how to tell him how secure she felt with his arms around her. "You want to explain to my why I have to wake you up to say good-bye?"

He kissed her again and gave a deep sigh, "You have no idea how many times I've had to give a wife or a husband or a parent the ultimate bad news and have them tell me that due to some stupid reason, maybe they were busy, or the kids were fussy, or they were on the phone, or they didn't want to wake someone up, or for some other mundane and ordinary reason, they didn't get to say good-bye. I don't ever want that happening to you."

"I love you," she said. "And that's not allowed to happen. Ever. I don't think my heart could stand it."

"I'm a cop, it could happen."

"I was married to a soldier, and it did. That's why it's not allowed. Hold me, please."

"For as long as you want. There's a storm coming in," he said. "It's going to be a long rainy night."

"Is that an invitation, Commander?" she asked, teasingly.

"I could make it an order, Sergeant, but I don't think that would be necessary. Plus it's against about nine thousand regulations." He suddenly became very serious, "I know you're in pain. I can tell by the way you're walking. Let me take care of you. You've been taking care of so many people for so long, it's time you had a break. When was the last time you let someone take care of you?"

She thought for a minute. "Not since I checked out of Walter Reed."

"Then it's well overdue." He kissed her again. "Go back to Shafter, grab some things for the weekend, and then go home. I'll meet you there as soon as I can get this crowd out of here."

"My car's not here. I rode in with the rest of the crew in the Colonel's SUV. Do you realize what you just said," she asked, looking up at him with that clear even gaze that was doing wonders for his libido. "You just told me to go home."

"I did, didn't I? Home. You, home with me, that seems so right." He felt her jump as the first peal of thunder cracked overhead. "Easy, baby, it's only thunder. If your car isn't here that means we can both leave now. I think I'm going to let Danno find out what 'second in command' really means. Let's go home."

Yes, he thought, home. That word had a new meaning. It wasn't just the house he lived in anymore. It was wherever she was. They were going home. He really did like the sound of that.

Pau (for now)


End file.
